A Novel Universal Magnetic Power Plug to Facilitate V2V/V2G/G2V/V2H Connectivity for Future Grid Infrastructure

Electric vehicles (EVs) are increasingly connected to the power grid using the charging connectors based on the charging connector standards, such as SAE J1772, SAE Combo, or CHAdeMO, which are mainly intended for single directional charging for grid-to-vehicle application. However, with the development of a smart grid, EVs should play a role as active distributed resources, that can transfer their energy into the grid and can charge or be charged by another EV. Therefore, the concept of vehicle-to-X (V2X), where X can be the grid, the local load, or another EV, has been proposed. Unfortunately, the current standard of the charging connector does not support all possible connections of the V2X. This article proposes a new universal power connector (UPC), which can support all possible connections of the V2X configuration including vehicle-to-vehicle, so that, if needed, EV owners can trade their EVs’ stored energy independently among themselves. The proposed connector transfers the power through a magnetic link formed by two magnetic parts (one in the EV and another in the charging plug). To validate the proposed new power plug/connector, a scaled-down prototype of an EV charger that utilizes the proposed UPC has been designed, analyzed, implemented, and validated in the laboratory.