Electric Vehicles (EV) significantly contribute to reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable transportation. Among EV technologies, hybrid energy storage systems (HESS), which combine fuel cells, power batteries, and supercapacitors, have been widely adopted to enhance energy density, power density, and system efficiency. Bidirectional DC-DC converters are pivotal in HESS, enabling efficient energy management, voltage matching, and bidirectional energy flow between storage devices and vehicle systems. This paper provides a comprehensive review of bidirectional DC-DC converter topologies for EV applications, which focuses on both non-isolated and isolated designs. Non-isolated topologies, such as Buck-Boost, Ćuk, and interleaved converters, are featured for their simplicity, efficiency, and compactness. Isolated topologies, such as dual active bridge (DAB) and push-pull converters, are featured for their high voltage gain and electrical isolation. An evaluation framework is proposed, incorporating key performance metrics such as voltage stress, current stress, power density, and switching frequency. The results highlight the strengths and limitations of various converter topologies, offering insights into their optimization for EV applications. Future research directions include integrating wide-bandgap devices, advanced control strategies, and novel topologies to address challenges such as wide voltage gain, high efficiency, and compact design. This work underscores the critical role of bidirectional DC-DC converters in advancing energy-efficient and sustainable EV technologies.

Grid-forming, particularly those utilizing droop control and virtual synchronous generators (VSG), can actively regulate the frequency and voltage of microgrid systems, exhibiting dynamic characteristics akin to those of synchronous generators. Although droop control and VSG control each have distinct benefits, neither can fully meet the diverse, dynamic needs of both grid-connected (GC) and islanded (IS) modes. Additionally, the coupling between active and reactive power can negatively impact microgrids' dynamic performance and stability. To solve these problems, this paper introduces a unified dynamic power coupling (UDC) model. This model's active power control loop can be tailored to meet diverse requirements. By implementing a well-designed control loop, the system can harness the advantages of both droop control and VSG control. In islanded mode, the proposed model can provide virtual inertia and damping properties, while in grid-connected mode, the inverter's active power output can follow the changed references without significant overshoot or oscillation. Furthermore, the model incorporates coupling compensation and virtual impedance based on a relative gain array in the frequency domain to facilitate quantitative analysis of power coupling characteristics. This paper outlines a distinct design process for the unified model. Finally, the proposed control method has been validated through simulation.