While reserves of fossil fuels are depleting, raising serious environmental concerns, major European and Asian countries (CN, IN, UK, FR, NO, NL, DE) have announced plans to phase out petrol and diesel cars and completely transition to the EV market as early as in 2030. Despite the fact whether there is a complete phase out of petrol and diesel cars or not, the trend is clear. The Electric vehicle, EV, market is significantly increasing, and the infrastructure needs to be prepared to accommodate such a revolution.
Meanwhile, a global transition towards renewable energy sources is followed by increased fluctuations of electricity production. Fluctuations in demand generated by increasing number of EV’s combined with fluctuations in supply generated by renewable energy sources are the key challenges to stability and quality of electrical power grids. Another major challenge for electrification of the transport sector is the availability of EV chargers and the hours needed to fully charge an electric vehicle compared to the minutes needed to fill the tank on a combustion-engine vehicle.
To overcome these challenges, the technical development as well as social acceptance of both EV charging stations and in-grid installations that can deal with 2-way fluctuations, must be carried out in parallel complementing and supporting each other. Ideally, a BEESS, battery electrical energy storage solution, operated by the Nerve Switch® technology stack, provides the solution as well as improves overall system efficiency and reduces the costs.
Aiming to utilize the idea behind the Nerve Switch®, the HPCforEVs project focused on:
1. Exploration of a novel BMS, Battery Management System, the Nerve Switch®, that allows for optimal single cell control and supervision, higher energy efficiency, increased system reliability and optimization of system’s lifetime.
2. Development of a modular and scalable battery system incorporating and exploiting the Nerve Switch® technology for battery cell topology variation during operation, thereby replacing most DC power electronic components.
3. Design of an HPC, High Power Charger, in full compliance with the CCS communication standard able to connect directly to a Nerve Switch®-equipped battery system.
4. Market maturity of a Nerve Switch®-equipped battery-buffered HPC for EVs, characterised by lower initial acquisition costs, improved profitability and reduced environmental impact.
5. Evaluation of the potential for the Nerve Switch® technology stack to be used in control systems for a variety of the energy conversion, storage and transmission systems with variable topologies.
