Power quality analysis of distribution systems incorporating high penetration level of EV battery chargers

Harmonic pollution has an increased interest in recent years because of the increase in non-linear loads. As an effort to combat carbon emissions, governments around the world are taking initiatives to promote the use of electric/ hybrid electric vehicles (EVs/ HEVs) and a lot of research and development is also going on in the field to exploit the potential of such vehicles. This implies the induction of EV battery chargers in the power systems at a mass scale in future. However, the market penetration of electric vehicle battery chargers is a potential power quality threat due to the fact that the associated battery chargers are power electronic circuits, which produce deleterious harmonic effects on the electrical distribution system. In this research, the experimentally recorded harmonic model of a battery charger is employed to perform the harmonic analysis of a typical UK electrical distribution system in Electrical Transient Analysis Program (ETAP) considering different scenarios and penetration levels of EVs. The experimental and simulation results show an increasing trend in the harmonic distortion level with the potential increasing penetration level of EVs. The results also indicate the strong correlation between harmonic levels and the charging routines. The harmonic distortion in both current and voltage is found to be violating standard limits.