Energy and Power Engineering, 2013, 5, 1398-1403
doi:10.4236/epe.2013.54B265 Published Online July 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/epe)
Comparison among Chargers of Electric Vehicle Based on
Different Control Strategies*
Pengxin Hou, Chunlin Guo, Yubo Fan
State Key Laboratory for Alternat e El ectrical Power Sy stem with Renewable E n ergy Sources,
North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China
Received March, 2013
ABSTRACT
The charger of electric vehicle is a power electronic device which consists of rectifying de vices and DC-DC conver ters.
This nonlinear diode rectifier circuit has low power factor and high harmonic content. In order to improve power factor
and reduce the harmonic distortion rate of the AC side current, single-phase non-controlled rectifier charger needs to
install the active power factor correction device. A piece of power system analysis software which is called PSCAD is
used in modeling of an EV charger which contains Boost-APFC. By means of simulation and analysis, differences of
APFC characteristics between the hysteresis current control mode and average current control mode which has an in-
fluence on the power grid are compared. The consequence of simulation shows that the two control strategies achieve
power factor correction and harmonic reduction requirements; Boost type power conversion circuit employs the average
current control mode is better, which has following features: relatively faster settling time of the output voltage, rela-
tively smaller overshoot, lower current harmonic distortion rate on AC side, lower switching frequency and better con-
trol effect.
Keywords: Electric Vehicle Charger; APFC; Control Strategy; Power Factor; Harmonic
1. Introduction
Environmental and energy consumption problems have
become the focus of the public throughout the world.
Electric vehicle, as a high-speed developing transport,
has an unparalleled advantage on energy conservation,
and reduction in pollutant emission. As the energy supply
facilities of Electric vehicle, charging station is the es-
sential part in the development of electric vehicle [1].
One of the main equipments of the electric vehicle is
charger that is an electrical and electronic device consisting
of rectifier, DC/DC converter and etc [2]. Due to the no-
nlinear structure of the charging system, a large number
of harmonic current components are produced that makes
harmonic noise of the circuit increase and power factor
decrease. The conventional approach is to add filters at
the input of the rectifier circuit, but the cost of the
method is so high and the volume and weight is too large
[3]. Therefore, in order to enhance the performance of
the on-board charging system, active power factor
correction (APFC) device need to be installed to improv e
the power factor of the system input side and reduce
harmonics.
Aiming at low-power single-phase uncontrolled recti-
fying charger, a simulation model of the Boost converter
circuit is builds in this thesis with the utilization of elec-
tromagnetic transient simulation tool PSCAD / EMT-DC
[4], studying two different typical strategies separately
used for controlling circuit, and making a comparative
analysis of the input voltage and current waveforms,
output voltage, AC side current harmonic distortion and
etc.
2. EV Charger Simulation Model
EV charger rectifier filter circuit is composed b y the rec-
tifier diode and the energy storage element filter capaci-
tor, and the nonlinear element leads to the conduction
angle of the rectifying element less than 180 degrees.
When the input peak voltage exceeds the voltage across
the filter capacitor, the rectifier diode has electric current
to flow through, which results in severe distortion of the
input AC current waveform [5]. Figure 1 shows an AC
side voltage and current waveforms, the green curve is
the voltage waveform, and the blue curve is the current
waveform. Current was pulse-like, which leads the input
AC voltage and current to generate the additional phase
shift. And the input side contains a lot of higher harmon-
*This work is supported by: National High Technology R&D Program
of China (863Program) (2012AA050804), Key Project of the National
Research Program of China (2011BAG02B14), National High Tech-
nology R&D Program of China (863 Program) (2011AA05A109).

P. X. HOU ET AL. 1399
ics, resulting in the low level of system input power fac-
tor, which make the input power factor measured at least
0.7. When circuit in the open loop state, the output volt-
age is unstable, especially during the beginning period,
the voltage values have serious overshoot. The introduc-
tion of the power factor correction circuit can promote
the operating characteristics of the charging machine and
improve the input power factor of the charging system,
also can reduce the impact and polluti o n o n t he grid [6].
3. APFC Control Circuit Simulation Model
3.1. Operating Characteristic of Boost-PFC
Circuit
Boost-PFC circuit is shown as Figure 2. To meet the
requirements of input current harmonics, the adoption of
Boost circuit takes account of the two functions realize-
tion----power factor correction and raising the voltage
[7].
Boost APFC circuit has the following characteristics
[8]:
1) Output voltage is greater than the input voltag e peak,
can achieve the purpose of raising the voltage.
2) Power factor correction to be completed by the
reasonable control strategy;
3) Input inductor can reduce the input filter requirements
to prevent the impact of the grid on the main circuit high
frequency transient.
4) The input current is continuous, EMI small, RFI
low;
(a) The voltage waveform on Ac side
(b) The ac current waveform on Ac side
Figure 1. EV charger AC voltage and current waveform.
Figure 2. Boost - PFC circuit structure diagram.
5) Easy to drive the power switch, the potential of its
reference endpoint is 0V.
In the Boost circuit, there are two main mode: Dis-
continuous Conduction Mode (DCM) and Continuous
Conduction Mod e (CCM).
The control mechanism of Continuous conduction
mode (CCM) is: according to the feedback quantity of
the sampling output voltage and output current , the
amount of deviation between quantity and feedback are
calculated. Through the judgment of deviation between
voltage and current to gain charger charge state, the
output pulse width control and the adjustment of switch-
ing time of power devices can realize closed loop control
for the charging system output quantity;
The continuous conduction mode (CCM)) has three
main control strategies: hysteretic current mode, peak
current mode, average current mode[9].
The current benchmark of three kinds of control strat-
egies are double half-wave sinusoidal voltage. Using
different control strategy to make the inductance current
change with the input voltage waveform, the input cur-
rent is close to sinusoidal wave to have the same phase as
the voltage wave to achieve power factor correction
3.2. Hysteresis Current Control Mode
Figure 3 shows the PSCAD hysteresis current mode
control circuit. Hysteresis loop logic comparator was
introduced in the contro l circuit, g enerating the h ysteresis
band, in order to control the inductor current waveform.
By the inductor current limit changes in the hysteresis
band, so that the input current could change as the
reference current change as the same time, ultimately
following the input voltage chang es.
In the hysteresis current model, the switch open time
constant, off time change, switching cycle is changed
[10]. Changes in the load have a great influence on the
switching frequency. The contradiction between switch-
ing frequency and the hysteresis width directly affect the
performance .of the system .Accuracy and delay of the
comparator and other factors easily because the zero
current dead zone, thus circuit needs to be compensated
to solve the problem [11].

P. X. HOU ET AL.
1400
3.3. Average Current Control Mode Table 1 shows the comparative analysis of the two
different control modes.
Figure 4 shows the PSCAD average current mode control
circuit. By using the current error amplifier, the control
circuit could deal with average of the switching frequency,
and then use the slope comparison of the waveform
generates a switching control signal. By comparison
between the inductor current and the reference current,
making errors equalized, controlling change of the input
current, so that the input current eventually follows the
input voltage[12]. The feedb ack of control strategy is the
input current, the amount charged is the average value of
the input current, and the current loop has a higher gain
bandwidth, good transient characteristics. The average
current is not sensitive to the noise and the switching
frequency is fixed[13].
4. The Simulation Results and Comparative
Analysis
Through the simulation of Boost-PFC circuit, the system
input voltage and current waveform can be measured in
the input. Two control methods both can achieve the
power factor correction and reduce harmonic [14]. Fig-
ure 5 shows the input side voltage and current waveform
under th e avera ge cu rrent mo de, AC side curren t phas e is
according to the source voltage.
Figure 6 gives power factor of the hysteresis current
mode and average current mode, two power factor is
close to 1, and the stable time and overshoot time of av-
erage current mode is short.
Figure 3. Hysteresis current control mode.
Figure 4. average current mode control.

P. X. HOU ET AL. 1401
Table 1. Comparative analysis of the two different control
modes.
Control method hysteresis current
control mode average current control mode
Detect current inductive current inductive current
operating mode CCM all
switching frequency Variable stable
noise sensitive Insensitive
add notes logic control current error
amplification
Figure 5. The input side voltage and current waveform of
the average current mode.
(a) The power factor of hysteresis current mode
(b) The power factor of average current mode
Figure 6. The power factor of hysteresis current mode and
average current mode.
Figure 7 gives the current distortion rate (THD
I
) of
hysteresis current mode and average current mode. The
current distortion rate of averag e current mode is smaller
than that of hysteresis current mode, which is only 4.2%,
and that of hysteresis current mode is to 5.4%.
Figure 8 gives the output voltage waveform of the
hysteresis current mode and average current mode. As
can be seen from the graph, the overshoot and smaller
stable time of average current mode is small, the over-
shoot is only 0 and stable time is 0.35 s. Table 2 presents
the comparison result of APFC performance for two dif-
ferent control modes.
Through the simulation study of two kinds of different
control mode, the following conclusion can be obtained:
Hysteresis current control relies on logic control dur-
ing the process, hysteresis loop width and switch fre-
quency interact with each other. Current error need to be
average amplification processed under average current
mode, which increase the complexity of a circuit.
Through the computer simulation analysis, average cur-
rent mode has the following advantages: relatively faster
output voltage stability time, higher power factor, rela-
tively smaller overshoot and AC current harmonic distor-
tion rate.
(a) The current distortion rate (ITHD) of hysteresis current mode
(b) The current distortion rate (ITHD) of and average current mode
Figure 7. The current distortion rate (ITHD) of hysteresis
current mode and average current mode.

P. X. HOU ET AL.
1402
(a). The output voltage waveform of hysteresis current mode
(b). The output voltage waveform of average current mode.
Figure 8. The output voltage waveform of the hysteresis
current mode and average current mode.
Table 2. APFC working performance of two different con-
trol modes.
APFC performance
hysteresis current
control mode average current control mode
The overshoot of output
voltage (%) 9.3 0
Stable time of the outpu t
voltage (s) 0.4 0.35
THD
I(%) 5.4 4.2
PF 0.997 0.998
According to the above performance advantage, the
active power factor correction circuit of off-board charger
adopts average current control mode for power factor
correction can achieve better control effect.
5. Acknowledgements
1) After the installation of an active power factor cor-
rection circuit, the power factor of the circuit of EV
charger has been improved, and the current harmonic
distortion of the AC side reduced. The control circuit of
Boost-PFC power factor correction has made the input
AC current waveform smoothness, which contains a
small high-frequency components; AC current zero
smooth, no large discontinuity; small overshoot starting
when the output DC voltage can be controlled within
range between 5% and 10%, and the start-up time is
faster; a good stability of the DC output can be achieve d,
and self-excited is not produced in various conditions;
input current is sinusoidal, and the same phase between
input voltage and the input current, and the power factor
of the circuit is greatly improved, PF can achieve more
than 0.99.
2) Load change has a great influence on the switching
frequency in hysteretic current mode. The contradiction
between switching frequency and the hysteresis width
directly affect the performance of the system. When the
input supply voltage is closing to 0, the difference be-
tween the two reference signals is small. Considering th at
the comparator accuracy and delay factors could easily
cause zero current dead band problems, therefore com-
pensation for the circuit has been a solution. For the av-
erage current mode, the current loop has a higher gain -
bandwidth, good transient characteristic, therefore THD
and EMI are very small. The simulation analysis shows
that the settling time of the output voltage is faster,
overshoot of output voltage is smaller, the switching
frequency is lower, and the power factor correction can
be completed without increasing the slope compensation
circuit.
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