Assessing and Mitigating Impacts of Electric Vehicle Harmonic Currents on Distribution Systems

Abstract

Harmonic currents of electric vehicle (EV) chargers could jeopardize the power quality of distribution systems and add to the transformer’s losses, thus degrading its lifetime. This paper assesses and mitigates the impacts of different EV chargers on distribution transformers and the voltage quality of distribution systems. The effect of state-of-charge (SOC) of the EV battery is considered through applying weighted arithmetic mean to accurately assess the impacts of EV harmonic currents on aging and losses of the EV interfacing transformer. The voltage quality of the IEEE 33-bus distribution system, supplying several EV parking lots, is also assessed at different charging levels using a fast-decoupled harmonic power flow. A new optimal harmonic power flow algorithm—that incorporates photovoltaic-based distribution generation units (DGs)—is developed to enhance the voltage quality of distribution systems, and elongate the lifetime of the substation transformer. The effectiveness of the proposed mitigation method is confirmed using the IEEE 33-bus distribution system, hosting several EV charging stations and photovoltaic-based DGs.