This project focuses on advanced control of medium voltage fast chargers for electrical vehicles in order to minimize charging times and reduce the strain on the electricity grid. This involves research in model predictive control, self-learning control, optimization, and on the application side, power systems stability and battery modeling for control. The research is part of the NEON (New energy outlook for the Netherlands) NWO (Dutch Research Council) project and it will be conducted within the Control Systems (CS) group of the Department of Electrical Engineering, TU/e, in cooperation with the Electromechanics and Power Electronics (EPE) and Electrical Energy Systems (EES) groups, Damen, Prodrive and the other NEON partners.

NEON is a multidisciplinary project that address three related societal challenges: clean energy, intelligent green transport, and climate action. It aims at developing solutions for quickly transforming our energy and mobility systems from running on fossil fuels to running on renewables. NEON will make use of a cross-disciplinary and integral approach to address complex aspects of the energy transition: the interaction between energy and mobility, the relation between technology innovation and personal preferences, the regulation and standardization of future energy and mobility systems, etc. This will involve the collaboration of several academic and industrial partners from the Netherlands across multiple science domains.





Within NEON, this PhD project focuses on the challenge of charging mobility. Large scale integration of electrical vehicles (EVs) within power grids is a pressing challenge that requires fast charging solutions and optimal scheduling of charging to sustain grid stability. Grid operators favor building a limited number of medium voltage fast charging stations with high capacity instead of rebuilding low voltage electricity infrastructure at a large scale. Also, EVs manufacturers favor fast charging stations to increase range of electric vehicles (Illustration: McKibillo - IEEE Spectrum). Therefore, the aim of this project is to develop efficient medium voltage fast chargers for electrical vehicles by new power electronics design and advanced, model based predictive control. To this end, research in model predictive control, self-learning control, optimization tailored for medium-voltage fast chargers and EVs will be conducted. The research also involves laboratory work in terms of implementation and experimental verification of the research results on a prototype charger developed by TU/e in collaboration with industrial partners.

 

Main research directions:

• Modeling of grid-connected medium voltage fast chargers: high-fidelity Simulink models required for validation and simplified models for controller design will be developed; this will include battery state-of-charge estimators and modeling the interface with the medium voltage power grid.
• Predictive control design methods: control of grid-connected fast chargers has to deal with multiple objectives and challenges: optimizing efficiency of charging and charging time for heterogeneous batteries, simultaneous charging of multiple vehicles, preventing grid overloading and assisting the grid if required. Combined knowledge from the fields of predictive control, multi-objective optimization, self-learning control and power electronics will be researched to address these challenges.
• Fast solvers for optimization-based controllers: simple and efficient optimization solvers will be researched for implementing optimization-based controllers on microcontrollers.

Control Systems group

The CS group research activities span all facets of systems and control theory, such as linear, nonlinear and hybrid systems theory, model predictive control, distributed control, machine learning for control, modeling and identification, formal methods in control. The CS group has a strong interconnection with industry via national and European funded projects in a variety of application areas like high-precision mechatronics, power electronics, and sustainable energy (mobility, transport, smart grids). CS owns an Autonomous Motion laboratory and hosts several high-tech setups. The PhD student will join the group and interact with the other members of the CS group (around 40 researchers), where he/she will participate in a mix of academic and industrial research activities. Research within the CS Group is characterized by personal supervision. The PhD student will have access to the advanced courses offered by the Dutch Institute for Systems and Control, and will attend the yearly Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control.

For the PhD position in this project, a candidate with a MSc degree in Systems and Control, Electrical Engineering, or Mechanical Engineering will be selected and hired as a doctoral student in the Control Systems Group for a 4-year period. The candidate should have the following competences:

• You are a talented and enthusiastic young researcher.
• Strong academic background in systems and control.
• Affinity and/or interest in power electronics; practical experience with power electronics would be welcome.
• Good programming skills in Matlab and well-versed in Simulink; experience with PLECS would be welcome.
• A team-player with excellent communication and cooperation skills in a multi-partner and multi-disciplinary project environment.
• You are creative and ambitious, hard-working and persistent.
• Ability to independently organize your work.
• Good scientific writing skills.
• Strong command of the English language (knowledge of Dutch is not required).

• A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university with the possibility to present your work at international conferences.
• A full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation after one year.
• To support you during your PhD and to prepare you for the rest of your career, you will have free access to a personal development program for PhD students (PROOF program).
• A gross monthly salary between € 2.395,00 and € 3.061,00 (on a fulltime basis), depending on experience and knowledge. The salary is in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement of the Dutch Universities.
• Benefits in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• Additionally, an annual holiday allowance of 8% of the yearly salary, plus a year-end allowance of 8.3% of the annual salary.
• A broad package of fringe benefits, including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, and savings schemes.
• Family-friendly initiatives are in place, such as an international spouse program, and excellent on-campus children day care and sports facilities.