Galvanic isolation in the power electronics system in a charging station or electricity charging station

[0001] This application claims priority to German Patent Application No. DE 10 2017 217 758.6, filed Oct. 6, 2017, the contents of such application being incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

[0002] The present invention relates to a galvanic isolation in the power electronics system of an electricity charging station. The present invention also relates to a corresponding charging station or electricity charging station.

[0003] In electrical engineering, any stationary device or electrical system that serves for supplying energy to mobile, battery-operated units, machines or motor vehicles by way of simple setting or insertion without it being necessary for the energy storage—for example the traction battery of an electric automobile—to be removed compulsorily is referred to as a charging station. Charging stations for electric automobiles are also sometimes referred to as “electricity charging stations” and can comprise a plurality of charging points.

[0004] Known here in particular are direct-current fast charging/high-performance charging (HPC) systems such as the so-called combined charging system (CCS), which is widespread in Europe. In the case of direct-current charging of the generic type, direct current is fed from the charging column directly into the vehicle and, for this purpose, is provided by way of a powerful rectifier from the electricity network or by way of large buffer accumulators at solar charging stations, for example. Situated in the vehicle is a battery management system, which communicates with the charging column directly or indirectly in order to adapt the current intensity, or to terminate the process when a capacity limit is reached.

[0005] The power electronics system is usually located in this case in the charging column. Since the direct-current connections of the charging column are connected directly to corresponding connections of the traction battery, it is possible for high charging currents to be transmitted with little loss, which allows short charging times.

[0006] In the various charging stations used worldwide, a wide variety of topologies are used for the power electronics system. State safety standards, such as DIN EN 61851-23, in this case occasionally require a galvanic isolation of the charging columns. Said galvanic isolation can be performed in the various charging columns in a wide variety of ways, for example by way of a separate transformer, and also within various converters, such as an AC/DC rectifier having a transformer, for example. A very small design that takes up little space and has a low weight is desirable for galvanic isolation.

[0007] Most modern charging columns implement a galvanic isolation at the input converter, the AC/DC converter having an integrated or upstream transformer. Others produce the galvanic isolation in a DC/DC converter as well. To this end, output-side DC/DC converters are usually used; however, these are very expensive due to high powers. Further solutions make provision for the use of the galvanic isolation from the transformer in the network connection. It is also possible for an additional separate transformer to be added on the AC side.

[0008] DE102014013039A1, US2013162032A, US2013175990A and US2015375628A, all of which are incorporated by reference herein, each disclose a charging column for an electric vehicle having a space-saving construction and galvanic isolation, for which purpose a DC/DC converter is sometimes provided. The charging columns according to US2013175990A and US2015375628A each contain a plurality of converters, among which is an AC/DC converter.

[0009] The invention provides a galvanic isolation in the power electronics system in a charging station for an electricity charging station and a corresponding electricity charging station according to the independent claims.

[0010] The galvanic isolation is technically implemented in a DC/DC controller having a high clock frequency directly downstream of the AC/DC controller provided on the network side. At this position, only the comparatively low network power has to be transmitted, for which reason said power is appropriate for a galvanic isolation, which is intended to be performed in a very space-saving and efficient manner. This is the main aim of the measure proposed here for galvanic isolation, which can also be realized in an easy and advantageous manner in respect of the low installation space requirements.

[0011] Further advantageous configurations of the invention are specified in the dependent patent claims. A realization as a series resonant converter, the magnitudes of which in respect of the high clock frequency are minimized and which have the greatest possible efficiency, is thus sensible. In this arrangement, the galvanic isolation is possible in a particularly space-saving and advantageous manner.

[0014] The FIGURE illustrates by way of example an electricity charging station equipped with a charging station (10) according to aspects of the invention. A rectifier (AC/DC converter 11) serves here for connection to the public TN or TT low-voltage network. A galvanically isolating DC/DC controller or DC voltage converter (isolated DC/DC converter 12) connected to said rectifier (11) transmits the voltage for protection against ground faults to the internal IT network of the charging station (10) in accordance with any legal requirements. To this end, the converter (12) is designed for operation with the highest possible clock frequency (in technical terms: “high-clocking;” i.e., 30 kHz to 120 kHz and preferably, when using galvanic isolation, 80 kHz to 120 kHz).

[0015] At this location, essentially two power paths split up inside the charging station (10): A first DC chopper (13) feeds a connected battery (not illustrated) and allows the energy stored in such a way to be fed back for the accelerated charging of connected vehicles. The battery may include multiple battery sections/strings (e.g., two) with each section/string including multiple modules connected in series and each module including multiple cells connected in series. For the supply of power to said connected vehicles, a second DC chopper (14) having a DC EMC filter (15) connected downstream and a second DC voltage converter, preferably operated in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM), are provided, which second DC chopper and second DC voltage converter have suitably protected connection lines for the purpose of power transmission. The associated pilot line can be provided with an overvoltage protection system depending on the charging standard and the charging voltage.