The DOE has awarded a $200,000 grant to North Carolina State University’s (NCSU) FREEDM Systems Center and electric utility ComEd for a research project aimed at boosting the efficiency of—and decreasing the cost of—extreme fast charging (XFC).

The total budget for the project is $5 million, which includes cost sharing from other collaborators.

“The goal of this new project is to bring extreme fast charging much closer to market realization and support the continued adoption of electric vehicles by reducing consumers’ charge anxiety,” says NCSU professor and Principal Investigator for the project Srdjan Lukic.

“The XFC charger that this project seeks to develop and demonstrate will be an ultra-low cost, all-silicon carbide modular power converter for DC charging equipment which can connect directly to a medium-voltage distribution system,” says ComEd. “With power capabilities of 300 kWh, these chargers target reducing the time to fully charge a standard 70 kWh EV battery to as little as 15 minutes.”

“After the charging systems have been developed, ComEd’s Grid Integration and Technology Lab in Maywood, Illinois will serve as the initial testing location for this new technology—providing an independent validation of the XFC system performance,” according to ComEd. “ComEd will also support phase two of the project by identifying ideal locations on the distribution grid to demonstrate this technology, unlocking the potential for wider deployment.”

Source: ComEd via Green Car Congress