Jiangfeng Zhang
Clemson University, SC·Engineering
Electric vehicle fast-charging stations face a hard balancing act. Grid power is limited, demand is rising and hard to predict, and renewable power comes and goes.
- Fields
Engineering
Mathematics & Statistics
- Topics
electric vehicles
EV fast charging
charging station management
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Sep 2027
What they work on
- Model electric vehicle fast-charging station management as a multi-objective optimization over charging protocols, power allocation, pricing and grid interaction, constrained by battery degradation, market prices, solar output, vehicle-to-grid service and demand response.
- Construct a Lyapunov function, a mathematical tool that proves a system converges, that breaks long-horizon station planning into short, small queued subproblems with guaranteed convergence to the optimal solution.
- Verify and validate the charging management solutions under realistic conditions using virtual prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop testing, which connects real hardware to simulated operating scenarios.
More about the research
Current station management relies on cautious demand forecasts and does not optimize how power is split among vehicles. The result can be longer waits, slower charging and faster battery wear. This project aims to build management methods that can guarantee performance: shorter charging times under limited power, longer battery life, happier users and better support for a secure grid.
Why it matters
Better fast-charging station control could shorten queues and charging times for electric vehicle drivers. It could also slow battery degradation and lower station operating costs. Station operators and the power grid may benefit as well, since charging would be coordinated with solar generation, electricity prices and grid needs. This could ease strain on the grid as electric vehicle numbers grow.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yue Cao
Oregon State University, OR·Engineering·Early-career
Develop a universal electrical model of real and virtual energy storage, based on a multi-timescale equivalent impedance network, to select storage that matches the power needs at each timescale.
Deng Cao
Central State University, OH·Engineering
Design a coordinated strategy for connected self-driving vehicles to decide when to send perception tasks to roadside edge computers, keeping the decisions manageable as vehicle numbers grow and robust to uncertain edge behavior.
Jan Kleissl
University of California-San Diego, CA·Engineering
Build DERConnect, a remote-access testbed that integrates solar panels, battery storage, electric vehicles, wind and solar emulators, and controllable building lighting and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems.
The school
Clemson University: 19 labs on PI Pages, $339M a year on research, 297 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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