Economic Approach to Design of a Level 2 Residential Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment

Increase in atmospheric adulteration due to exponential growth in urbanization, industrialization, and number of on-road vehicles have necessitated the need for emission-free transportation. The major challenges in the proliferation of electric vehicles are the lack of international standards. This paper presents simulation and hardware implementation of a low-cost residential EVSE based on SAE J1772 standard. This is accomplished by using Arduino microcontroller for detection and communication with an electric vehicle. The main difference of the proposed system to existing EVSE is its low cost and amperage adjustment for better load control. The resultant system is capable of detecting various states and provides communication as specified by the CCS standard. The proposed EVSE includes necessary protective features like ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI), continuous monitoring of temperature, humidity, and potential earth for protection against short circuit. Simulation of the pilot circuit is done using Labcenter Electronics: Proteus software and simultaneously a hardware model was developed and tested. Results indicate system to be economical and compliant with future improvement in energy storage devices and smart grid.