A Bidirectional Battery Charger With Modular Integrated Charge Equalization Circuit

High-voltage battery pack and charger structure are the main concerns of the electric vehicle (EV) developments. To achieve required voltage and power in propulsion systems, cascading battery stacks is essential. However, due to small discrepancies between different cells, charge imbalance occurs. Charge imbalance reduces battery cells life cycle, accessible energy, and system performance. Hence, charge equalization among battery stacks is necessary. Furthermore, EVs should have some essential requirements to provide desired contributions in future networks. Therefore, bidirectional power flow and reactive power control are other important capabilities of the battery charger system. In this paper, a bidirectional structure with two operation modes for a modular battery stack is developed. The developed structure has active and reactive control capabilities during grid to vehicle and vehicle to grid operations. To improve the battery system performance, a modular charge equalizer circuit (CEC) for both operation modes is developed. The modular configuration of the battery stack improves the system reliability and flexibility. Moreover, the overall system performance for the CEC and converter is improved by utilizing the integrated control strategy. Performance of the proposed structure is evaluated using simulations and laboratory experiments. The results confirm the capability of the proposed structure.