Power quality in distribution networks with electric vehicle charging - a research methodology based on field tests and real data

In this paper power quality measurement results of electric vehicle (EV) battery charging are presented. The power quality issues of EV charging are a rising concern among power utilities, as a rapid penetration of EVs on automotive markets is expected to happen in a few years to come. For evaluating the impact of EV charging a series of field measurements are conducted and harmonic current profiles based on the measurements were created. Paper also discusses the calculation methodology of harmonic current flow in distribution networks using the harmonic profiles. For this purpose an OpenDSS based calculation tool is developed and preliminary simulation results are presented.