Feeder Load Balancing Using Phase Switching at the Load Connection Terminals

The increase in electrical energy usage in residential homes has caused concerns to the power industry mainly due to the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) and renewable energy sources. A concern for power quality is the unbalanced loading that these EVs and renewable energy sources will induce in feeders. Neighborhoods and house clusters typically connect to a single phase on a feeder. Unfortunately, there is little control on which neighborhoods or houses adopt EVs and renewable energy first. Additionally, the unpredictability of EV charging and renewable energy output raises concerns as there could be times of loading that cause unbalance current in the feeder. This paper describes a method to automatically balance the loading in real time by using mechanical switches controlled with an algorithm to swap single phase loads between the phases of a feeder resulting in a more balanced three phase load current as seen at the substation.