Charging infrastructure of medium voltage station upgraded to megawatt class

Sooner or later, charging stations alongside freeways, in parking heaps or at logistics facilities should ship way more energy in a brief house of time than they do in the present day. For that reason, new charging stations can now not merely be related to the low voltage energy grid.

Within the undertaking MS-Tankstelle, Fraunhofer ISE and companions from trade subsequently developed the medium voltage system expertise for quick charging stations that may allow peak a great deal of a number of megawatts sooner or later. The technologywhich makes use of environment friendly silicon carbide semiconductors and better voltages, results in decrease materials use and decrease prices for quick charging stations. It was revealed within the convention proceedings 2024 Power Conversion Congress & Expo Europe (ECCE Europe).

On the similar time, the system may be very environment friendly and might be flexibly utilized to charging stations of various sizes and totally different car varieties. A demonstrator of 1 charging level might be seen on the Fraunhofer Power Alliance sales space on the E-World from 11–13 February in Essen, Germany (corridor 5, D 126).

Because the variety of e-vehicles will increase, so does the necessity for fast-charging stations that concurrently serve many automobiles in the identical means as typical filling stations do in the present day. This requirement is especially related alongside freeways, but in addition in city parking garages and parking heaps.

The typical output of a fast-charging system for a automobile is 150 kW. This rises to 350 kW for buses, vans and small vehicles, with larger charging capacities anticipated sooner or later. Since electrical charging is slower than the refueling course of, round 15 to 25 charging factors might be wanted sooner or later as a substitute of the everyday eight fuel pumps at filling stations in the present day.

Collectively these charging factors will draw round 1.5 to three.5 megawatts of energy when quick charging in parallel, which implies that future fast-charging stations can now not be equipped through the low-voltage grid. Even when the charging station is underutilized, the facility required would exceed 300 kW.

Additionally, the power distribution inside the charging station or parking zone shouldn’t be distributed within the low voltage grid. This may result in large set up prices and huge vitality losses in cables, because of the lengthy cable runs of, e.g., 100 meters or extra for 25 parking areas, coupled with the excessive energy.

The facility digital system developed within the undertaking with the companions Sumida Parts & Modules GmbH, Infineon Applied sciences AG and AEG Powersolutions GmbH subsequently depends on a medium voltage grid that’s tailored to a voltage of 1,500 VDC utilizing a rectifier. The upper voltage degree allows a better output on the similar present with out necessitating the cable cross-section to be elevated.

The considerably decrease copper consumption that outcomes contributes considerably to environmental safety and useful resource conservation. The worth of 1,500 VDC was chosen for this unit, as it’s the boundary restrict of the low voltage customary. Above this worth, different requirements would apply.

Modular strategy for charging stations of various sizes

An electrically remoted converter {couples} the direct current (DC) distribution network to the car battery and controls the fast-charging course of. The DC converters, every with an output of 175 kW, are designed in order that they will simply be related in parallel within the system. This modular strategy makes it attainable to construct charging stations with decrease energy charging factors for vehicles and better energy charging factors for vehicles.

In distinction to home wall packing containers, charging stations have to be extremely suitable for various car varieties. The idea of a central rectifier and a 1,500 V DC distribution, which was developed within the undertaking, is advantageous in that the grid connection parts (transformer and rectifier) might be dimensioned and scaled extra independently of the charging electronics. In view of the excessive demand for energy electronics and parts, like cables and transformers, the fabric necessities for this method are considerably lowered in comparison with different present options.

For an uncomplicated charging course of, the charging station needs to be absolutely suitable with the CCS1 and CCS2 requirements, that are extensively established in Europe for car currents as much as 500 amperes and voltages as much as 1,000 volts. As well as, the idea additionally helps the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) customary. A second converter module is deliberate to deal with this. For this variant just a few parts must be tailored.

“The topology we developed in this project finds applications not only in charging stations but also for its integration in renewable hybrid power plants or stationary battery storage systems,” explains Andreas Hensel, group supervisor of Excessive Energy Electronics and System Expertise at Fraunhofer ISE.

Offered by Fraunhofer Institute for Photo voltaic Power Techniques ISE