Analysis of the Impact of EV Charging on THD, Power Factor and Power Quality of Distribution Grid

As the world is increasingly trying to adopt green energy, lower pollutions and sustainable transportation system comprising electric vehicles (EVs) are going to be one of the dominant transport systems of the world. Though in Bangladesh electric vehicles are not that much popular yet, battery-driven three-wheeler auto-rickshaws are gaining popularity as it is used in both urban and rural areas for public transport. But the problem lies in charging EV since for EV charging the same grid is used as the households due to unplanned charging stations. Since the EV chargers use the transformer and/or non-linear power electronics components, they inject huge harmonics into the power grids. This paper presents the analysis of the impact of charging the battery-run three-wheelers on total harmonic distortion, power factor and overall power quality of the distribution utility grid. A real-time data acquisition system has been developed and the data has been collected from a local charging station powered by a 11/0.4 kV substation. After analyzing the data, it is observed that the power factor decreases and total harmonic distortion increases due to EV charging which eventually degrades the quality of the power grid.