Battery models have gained great importance in recent years, thanks to the increasingly massive penetration of electric vehicles in the transport market. Accurate battery models are needed to evaluate battery performances and design an efficient battery management system. Different modeling approaches are available in literature, each one with its own advantages and disadvantages. In general, more complex models give accurate results, at the cost of higher computational efforts and time-consuming and costly laboratory testing for parametrization. For these reasons, for early stage evaluation and design of battery management systems, models with simple parameter identification procedures are the most appropriate and feasible solutions. In this article, three different battery modeling approaches are considered, and their parameters’ identification are described. Two of the chosen models require no laboratory tests for parametrization, and most of the information are derived from the manufacturer’s datasheet, while the last battery model requires some laboratory assessments. The models are then validated at steady state, comparing the simulation results with the datasheet discharge curves, and in transient operation, comparing the simulation results with experimental results. The three modeling and parametrization approaches are systematically applied to the LG 18650HG2 lithium-ion cell, and results are presented, compared and discussed.

The diffusion of electric vehicles in Italy has started but some complications weight its spread. At present, hybrid technology is the most followed by users, due particularly to socioeconomic factors such as cost of investment and range anxiety. After a deep discussion of the Italian scenario, the aim of the paper is to recognize whether fuel cell technology may be an enabling solution to overcome pollution problems and respect for the environment. The opportunity to use fuel cells to store electric energy is quite fascinating—the charging times will be shortened and heavy passenger transport should be effortless challenged. On the basis of the present history and by investigating the available information, this work reports the current e-mobility state in Italy and forecasts the cities in which a fuel cell charging infrastructure should be more profitable, with the intention of granting a measured outlook on the plausible development of this actual niche market.

This work presents an overview of the main energy management concepts and technical challenges for smart grid applications towards a sustainable and smart evolution of the Distributed Electric Systems (DES). Different scenarios are pointed out, highlighting the possible benefits from both the technical and economical points of view. The final part of the paper addresses the main issues related to the integration of electric vehicles in smart grids, which represents one of the biggest challenges for energy management in smart grid evolution.

The FPGA represents a valid solution for the design of control systems for inverters adopted in the field of PV systems because of their high flexibility of use. This paper presents an experimental analysis of the MC SPWM techniques for a three-phase, five-level, cascaded H-Bridge inverter with FPGA controller-based. Several control algorithms are implemented by means of the VHDL programming language and the output voltage waveforms obtained from the main PWM techniques are compared in terms of THD%. Simulation and experimental results are analysed, compared and discussed.

This paper presents an overview and experimental analysis of the MC SPWM techniques for single-phase cascaded H-bridge inverter. The multilevel power converters are an alternative to traditional converters known as “three-level converters”. The voltage waveforms and the related frequency spectra, which have been obtained by simulation analysis in Matlab-Simulink environment, are here reported for all the proposed modulation techniques. The simulation results have been experimentally validated through means of a DC/AC, five-level, single-phase converter prototype with an appropriate test bench.