Virtual Inertia-Based Multipower Level Controller for Inductive Electric Vehicle Charging Systems

A method of modulating the power level of a grid-supplied inductive electric vehicle (EV) charger to provide frequency stabilization to the utility grid is presented. The proposed controller can allow inductive EV charging systems to effectively respond to grid frequency fluctuations by online regulating the charging level and adding high virtual inertia. A new IPT multipower level controller using simplified digital circuits is designed. The virtual inertia control/controller (VIC) is incorporated into the proposed multipower level controller which gets the grid frequency measurement and online adjust the IPT's charging level. Using the proposed VIC IPT charger, the switching cycles, as a result, the power transfer from the grid to the EV can be regulated in response to the grid frequency change. The simulation results of the proposed VIC IPT power controller are presented to show its effectiveness in response to power grid fluctuations. The proposed virtual inertia based controller is experimentally implemented and verified on an IPT setup connected to an actual small-scale Labvolt testbed.