The present invention relates to an electric vehicle charging station (EVCS) system and a method of assembling and its operation thereof. Particularly, the present invention discloses a platform providing alternating current (AC) and/or direct current (DC) charging of the electric vehicle at the station and the method for assembling the charging station.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[002] High fuel demand due to high energy usage has increased dependency on Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) technology leading to environmental pollution and rising fossil fuel prices. This must be reduced and alternative fuel which has the potential to solve environmental pollution; global warming and energy sustainability concerns must be explored.
[003] Electric vehicles (EVs) show great promise to meet CO2 reduction targets in the transport domain and to reduce local air pollution. Remote systems, such as vehicles, have been introduced that include locomotion power derived from electricity received from an energy storage device such as a battery. For example, hybrid electric vehicles include on-board chargers that use power from vehicle braking and traditional motors to charge the vehicles. Vehicles that are solely electric generally receive the electricity for charging the batteries from other sources.
[004] Adoption of an electric vehicle running solely on an electric vehicle battery, as opposed to a hybrid electric vehicle that also includes an internal combustion engine is starting to take off as the main barriers, being that the electric vehicle battery will run out of charge before the vehicle reaches its destination.
[005] Actual requirement for charging the battery varies with driver operation in any Electric Vehicle, especially in heavily populated areas where traffic speed is variable, while the demands on the battery from fixed peripherals are constant (air conditioning, heating, lighting, etc.). This varying need prevents electric vehicle users from accurately planning the actual transportation requirement of their electric vehicles even if the users know the percentage that the electric battery is charged at the beginning of a trip. Attempts have been made to extend capacity of the battery of the vehicle however, increasing the amount of battery energy per vehicle has been limited by the slow progress in the increase of practical energy density in large electric vehicle batteries.
[006] Therefore, electric vehicles require frequent charging to operate in normal service. Frequent charging at predetermined charging station locations requires energy storage systems to be sized with more certainty to be able to utilize the stations efficiently leading to reduced size, mass, and cost of systems. Therefore, Smart EV charging services can provide a solution to such challenges.
[007] The prior art document US9610851B2 discloses construction and layout of a charging station embodying all the parts of a charging station in a body casing using a specific layout only having upper and lower body and front and back body design claims. However, the cited prior is limited to a specific layout of a charging station.
[008] Further other related prior arts focus on providing methods for making a particular type of Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) which provide either AC or DC charging station. There, are some prior arts which focus on connecting EVCS with cloud servers to enable the operators, manufacturers, power supply companies to monitor and track the usage, billing and booking of charging points available in an EVCS.
[009] Therefore, keeping in view of the problems associated with the state of the art, there is a need for improved smart electric vehicle charging stations which provides varied range of power outputs for EVCS by using a modular platform which provides all the major components for assembly of an EVCS.
OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION
[0010] The primary objective of the present invention is to provide manufacturing and assembly of an Electric Vehicle charging station (EVCS) having modular type design.
[0011] Another objective of the present invention is to provide Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) of varying capacity having output of both AC and/or DC electrical output power using a modular platform.
[0012] Yet another objective of the present invention is to supply varied range of power outputs.
[0013] Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide body casing of the charger designed to encase any rating of components to fit into the slots for increased or decreased power rating as per requirement.
[0014] Still another objective of the present invention is to reduce cost and complexity of EVCS manufacturing and assembly.
[0015] Other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein, by way of illustration and example, the aspects of the present invention are disclosed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0016] The present invention relates to a platform providing alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) charging of the electric vehicle at the station and the method for assembling the charging station. The present invention utilizes the existing components in building the AC as well as DC charging station by utilizing grid supply along with renewable energy. In the present invention while assembling the electric vehicle charging system its components are scalable as per the power rating requirement of the charging station.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0017] The present invention will be better understood after reading the following detailed description of the presently preferred aspects thereof with reference to the appended drawing, in which the features, other aspects and advantages of certain exemplary embodiments of the invention will be more apparent from the accompanying drawing in which:
[0018] Fig 1 illustrates the block diagram of the AC charging station layout.
[0019] Fig 2 illustrates the block diagram of the DC charging station layout.
[0020] Fig 3 illustrates the perspective view for sliding mechanism of rectifier section.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0021] The following detailed description and embodiments set forth herein below are merely exemplary out of the wide variety and arrangement of instructions which can be employed with the present invention. The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. All the features disclosed in this specification may be replaced by similar other or alternative features performing similar or same or equivalent purposes. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, they all are within the scope of the present invention.
[0022] Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.
[0023] The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings but are merely used to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention.
[0024] It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
[0025] It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.
[0026] The present invention relates to a modular platform for creating variable capacity of Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) both for AC and DC power charging. A charging system for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a battery for a vehicle, a battery management system for detecting a state of a battery for a vehicle, charger of the electric vehicle, charging port, an electric vehicle control unit and a charging power from an electric vehicle charging station. The various components related to charging of the electric vehicle (100) are discussed herein:
[0027] (a) Battery: In the present invention an electric car battery is an electrical energy storage system in the form of direct-current electricity (DC). The type of battery used is a rechargeable battery.
[0028] (b) Battery Management System (BMS): The battery management system provides the signal to charge or discharge the battery according to the need of the vehicle. If it gets a signal from the controller, the battery management system directs the flow of DC electrical energy to the inverter which is then used to drive the motor. In case the electric vehicle is connected to the DC charging station then the on-board charger of the electric car is bypassed and direct current via Battery Management System (BMS) is transferred to the battery, as instructed by the vehicle's charging control system.
[0029] (c) Charger of Electric Vehicle: The charger of an electric vehicle of the present invention is a battery charging device. The charger receives electric power from outside sources, such as the utility grid or renewable sources of energy such as solar power plants. There are two types of electric car chargers i.e., On-board charger: the charger is located and installed in the car and Off-board charger: the charger is not located or not installed in the car. When charging an electric car with alternating current, the car's on-board system (also called the on-board charger) is used, and it takes care of the conversion of outlet current into battery current. It therefore receives alternating current (AC) and converts it into direct current (DC), which is then sent to the car battery. Further in the AC stations, the electrical grid is connected to on-board charger.
[0030] (d) Charging Port : The charging port allows the vehicle to connect to an external power supply in order to charge the traction battery pack.
[0031] (e) Electric Vehicle control unit : The main function of the controller is to regulate electrical energy from batteries and inverters that will be distributed to electric motors. While the controller itself gets the main input from the car pedal (which is set by the driver). This pedal setting will determine the frequency variation or voltage variation that will enter the motor, and at the same time will determine the car’s speed. In brief, this unit manages the flow of electrical energy delivered by the traction battery, controlling the speed of the electric traction motor and the torque it produces.
[0032] An Electric Vehicle charging station (EVCS) is an electrical equipment that performs the following basic functions such as metering and billing, Input power supply stabilization, current conversion, phase rectification, communication with vehicle and maintain safe electrical power supply. To set-up any EV charging station, be it AC or DC charging station metering and billing, Input power supply stabilization, communication with vehicle and maintaining safe electrical power supply are common to both AC and/or DC type EVCS.
[0033] Figure 1 and 2 illustrates the DC/AC charging station including an electric vehicle charging apparatus, grid supply and/or renewable energy resource, metering system and bus-bars. EVCS or Electric Vehicle Charging Station, or electric vehicle supply equipment(EVSE), is equipment that connects an electric vehicle (EV) to a source of electricity to recharge the battery of electric cars (BEV), neighborhood electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids (PHEV). Electric vehicle charging station is the most important infrastructure to support electric vehicles. Charging stations are also called electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE). In the present invention while assembling of electric vehicle charging system, the components of the charging system are scalable as per the power rating requirement of the charging station. The components of the EV charging station are discussed herein in detail:
[0034] (a) Grid Supply: In accordance with the present invention the charging station may be an Alternating Current (AC) supply or Direct Current (DC) supply station. However, in the present invention both are utilized to supply power to an Electric Vehicle in a single station. The renewable energy resource such as solar, wind, hydro etc. may be used to generate power for charging batteries and/or rotating the alternator and producing electrical power. The power generated is directly used to power the charging station for a particular time period of the day or to get subsidy in electricity charges. The supply received from the grid is dependent on the load sanctioned to the charging equipment by power distribution board.
[0035] (b) Rectifiers: In accordance with the present invention as illustrated in Figure 3 in the DC charging stations, the input AC power is converted into DC output power through rectifiers which convert AC into DC power and provide a stabilized DC output power. These rectifiers mounted on channel sliders (101) utilized in various power combinations to build any power rated charging station from 4KW to up to 350KW. The rectifiers are cased and connected is the most important section of this platform. The casing of the rectifier provides mechanical strength. In an exemplary embodiment the rectifiers are encased in a metal casing. The metal casing may be made up of aluminum, copper, or any other suitable metal alloy to provide mechanical strength. Preferably an aluminum casing is used. The rectifiers are designed to enable sliding pull and push of rectifiers to change any rectifier at any point in time to increase or decrease the power rating of a EVCS and/or repair or troubleshoot any of the rectifiers. The sliding mechanism of channel sliders have rollers incorporated in them which makes it easy and effortless for heavy rectifiers to be slided in and out according to the requirement. The rectifiers having power ratings of 3.3KW, 4KW, 15KW and 20KW are utilized in the present invention. On installing the rectifiers into the case holder there is an inbuilt connector which connects automatically to the bus bars carrying input AC power and supplies output DC power to the guns.
[0036] (c) Contactors: In accordance with the present invention the AC charging stations utilizes an array of contactors used to switch on and off the power supply to any output gun and/or socket of the charger. These contactors are mounted on an aluminum rail and can be removed and/or changed as per the power rating required by the charging station.
[0037] (d) Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB): In accordance with the present invention the input power stabilization is done by installing a miniature circuit breaker (MCB) at the point of connection of grid supply to the charging station unit. The supply from MCB is fed to an active stabilizer circuit having a microcontroller based active power stabilization using thyristors and/or relays.
[0038] (e) Busbars: The integration of the components on the platform is done using bus bars and/or cables and/or wire harnesses and/or specialized cables such as optic fiber or any other such cable. The bus bars are enabled to carry heavy voltage and current between various components of the power supply resource and the electrical supply charging apparatus are designed and fixed as per the body type. The bus bars are designed to carry current and voltages of up to 500 Ampere and 900 Volts, respectively.
[0039] (f) Charge Controller: The main function of charge controller is to mediate necessary communication between the charging station and the vehicle control system to ensure safety of the vehicle and the passenger. Further, the charging station regulates charging according to the power supply available at the charging point, so that the network is not overloaded. Furthermore, DC charging, also known as fast charging, is done by changing alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). Further, the charge controller includes a central processing unit which is either a microcontroller or a microprocessor depending upon the requirement of the user. The charges controller has a touch screen based, user interface which is standard with a minimum of seven inches display that comes standard with all chargers. The charge controller controls the switching of charging guns, communication with servers, and controlling all the peripheral components of a charging station. The charge controller is further connected to a metering section which measures the flow of current and calculates the billing amount to paid by the vehicle owner to charge a vehicle.
[0040] (g) Charging Plugs: The present invention relates to an electrical power cord releasably attachable to at least one of the vehicles and a source of power. Further, the electric cord connected with electrical plug at one end is utilized to be plugged into the socket on the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) that supplies charging power to the vehicle.
[0041] (h) Charging Guns: The charging guns of the present invention are mainly used to charge electric vehicles. The charging gun acts as an interface between the charging device and the rechargeable battery of the electric vehicle. The charging guns used by the charger can be of any protocol be it Combined Charging System (CCS) an/or CHAdeMo and/or type-2 AC connectors having CAN bus communication enablement. Further, there are two types of body for fast DC chargers:- one is with two charging guns and the other with three charging guns. The body type for AC charger is generally a metal body which is an encloser made up of metal panels such as any type of steel, plastic, polymer etc.
[0042] (i) Light Emitting Diode (LED): The present invention includes LED’s indicating the status of the charging vehicle i.e., whether it is charging or has completed charging.
[0043] (j) Metering System: This metering section remains same for all type of chargers and can measure flow of electricity upto plurality of charging points of the power supply station at one time. In an exemplary embodiment, the metering section remains same for all type of chargers and can measure flow of electricity trough up to five (5) charging points of a charging station at one time. The metering and billing of electricity consumption for charging a vehicle is done through an energy metering device which measures the flow of current per unit time and basis to that, it counts the number of units as per the calibration standards set by authorities. The calculations for metering of electricity can be referred to the Ohm’s law which state the Power = (Current)2 X Resistance. By measuring the flow of current and having a known resistance applied to it, power can be calculated easily. Billing is generally based on units of power consumed and multiplying with a standard amount of money prescribed per unit of power. The bill generated is an electronic receipt which can be shared with all the stakeholders through any electronic media not limited to email, Short Message Service (SMS), Phone call, Mobile application notification or any such other media.
[0044] (k) Software Module: In accordance with the present invention all the EVCS are assembled on this platform are OCPP compatible and can be implemented with any OCPP software solutions available to make it scalable and user friendly. The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is an application protocol for communication between Electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and a central management system, also known as a charging station network, similar to cell phones and cell phone networks. This is also necessary as per industry standards.
[0045] In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the electric vehicle charging apparatus includes at least one of the electrical loads that are electrically connected to the power supply system having capacity 350KW of 3 phase input AC from the grid. The number of loads may be as many as allowed by power supply station. Further each electrical load is protected by its own circuit breaker, having amperage ratings varied according to the load of the charging station . One of the electrical circuit branches may include an electrical load, which is the electric vehicle charging apparatus.
[0046] The advantage of the present invention includes that the charging station equipment is scalable and can be scaled up or down in terms of power capacity so that for future expansion, the entire equipment is not to be changed and only a rectifier module change can upgrade the capacity of the charging equipment. This makes the charging station upgrade cost effective.
[0047] While this invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the scope of the claims of the complete specification.

We Claim:

1. An assembling of electric vehicle charging system, comprising:
• a grid supply configured to supply either AC/DC supply or both;
• atleast one rectifier configured to convert AC supply into DC supply;
• atleast one contactor configured to switch on and off the grid supply between a charging plug and a charging port of electric vehicle;
• atleast one miniature circuit breaker configured to provide input power stabilization;
• a plurality of busbars supplying voltage and current between various components of the charging station;
• atleast one charge controller configured to control the switching of charging guns, communication with servers, and controlling the working of all the peripheral components of a charging station;
• atleast one charging plug connected to one end of electric cable to be plugged into the socket on an electric vehicle supply equipment;
• atleast one charging gun connected on one end of the electric cable providing interface between the electric vehicle supply equipment and electric vehicle;
• atleast one light emitting diode displaying the status of the electric vehicle charging;
• atleast one metering system measuring flow of electricity for plurality of charging points;
• a software module configured to provide communication between Electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and a central management system;
wherein,
(i) a channel slider is attached on the electric vehicle charging system platform;
(ii) the rectifier is detachably mounted on channel sliders to facilitate modification of the rectifier as per the power rating requirement of the charging station; and
(iii) the contactor is detachably mounted on an aluminum rail to facilitate modification of the contactor as per the power rating requirement of the charging station.

2. The assembling of electric vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the rectifier is encased in a metal casing.

3. The assembling of electric vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the metal casing may be made up of but not limited to aluminum, copper, or any other suitable metal alloy.

4. The assembling of electric vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the channel sliders are fitted with rollers to facilitate sliding mechanism.

5. The assembling of electric vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the components of the charging system are scalable as per the power rating requirement of the charging station.