Making Electric Vehicles Smarter with Grid and Home Friendly Functions

Electric vehicles draw lots of power from supply feeders for charging, leading to increased power losses in the power lines and depressed feeder voltages. This study proposes using smart inverters to enable electric vehicles (EV) bidirectional charging and interaction with the grid to mitigate the EV negative impacts on the power system. A key system to be developed for the smart inverters is a Non-intrusive Control System (NCS) which incorporates V2G functions. The outcomes include three smart functions. The evaluation results for a distribution feeder show that the functions work efficiently. The NSC helps maintain the feeder voltage while reducing its power loss by 4.24%, thanks to appropriate discharge operation of EV. The NCS also turns the EV into a flexible stand-alone power source for use in home emergency and recreational events.