Improving the storage capability of a microgrid with a vehicle-to-grid interface

In the emergent deployment of microgrids, storage systems play an important role providing ancillary services, such as backup power and reactive power support. This concept becomes crucial in the context of microgrids with a high penetration of renewable energy resources, where storage systems may be used to smooth the intermittency and variability of most of them. Plug-in electric vehicles provide an enormous distributed storage capability, which favours the technical and economical exploitation of such systems. This paper presents a comprehensive implementation and control of a bidirectional power converter for Vehicle-to-Grid integration, based on a bidirectional DC/DC converter followed by a full bridge DC/AC converter. The evaluation of the adopted topology and its control is performed through MATLAB/Simulink simulation.