Standalone DC level-1 EV Charging using pv/Grid infrastructure, MPPT algorithm and CHAdeMO protocol

This paper presents an approach of DC level 1 charging of an electric vehicle (EV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) making use of standalone solar photovoltaic (PV) system. In this approach it is proposed to use the DC power generated by solar panels to directly charge EV traction battery pack using solar MPPT controller algorithm and CHAdeMO DC fast charging protocol. A supervisory control algorithm is developed to handle the standalone solar conditions. With the proposed solution, any EV users with CHAdeMO DC fast charging port can charge their vehicle. An example of commercially available EV `Nissan Leaf' is considered for explaining the solution with 1 kW solar PV system. An average daily commuter distance is considered along with the survey data of different demographic solar energy harvesting capability. Calculations are made to prove that this solution can charge EVs off-the-grid, hence zero running cost.