Bidirectional multiport solar‐assisted SRM drive for pure electric vehicle applications with versatile driving and autonomous charging capabilities

Pure electric vehicles (PEVs) offer a solution for achieving a zero‐emission transport system. This study presents the work towards the development of a bi‐directional multiport solar‐assisted switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive for PEV applications having battery‐to‐vehicle (B2V), photovoltaic (PV)‐to‐vehicle (PV2V), PV assisted B2V, grid‐to‐vehicle battery charging and PV2V battery charging functions. The power circuit is formed by the combination of a front‐end circuit and a modified‐Miller SRM converter. Battery, PV panel, grid and SRM form the four ports of this multiport drive, which with proper control, provide motoring, braking and charging functions. The dc‐link voltage is fully controllable which improves the machine performance both at higher and lower speeds. During stand‐still conditions, the battery is charged either from the grid at unity power factor or through the PV panel by incorporating the drive components to form an on‐board battery charger, thereby reducing the reliance on charging stations. A fault‐tolerant control is developed to operate the system with desired performance under single and double phase open‐circuit faults. An 8/6 SRM is used for proof of concept and the experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed drive and control strategy.