.- 2012 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED 2012) Shanghai, 5-6 Sep.

ANALYSIS OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES' IMPACT TO THE ELECTRIC GRID

Pengxin, Zhang Zhebo

JIADING POWER SUPPLY COMPANY, SMEPC ELECTRIC POWER TECHNICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, SMEPC

ppxxsunny@163.com zzb1987713@163.com

ABSTRACT: The electric vehicles are the inevitable
outcome of the energy development, and are also the
important part of distributed energy sources in the smart
power grids, so now it has been the extensive attention
planning, and we will face many technical problem in the
process of electric vehicle development, including load
growth, charging uncertainty, power quality and so on,

and developed by the society. In the power system,
electric vehicle charging post is the nonlinear load, and
most of all are the inverter models which consist of power
electronic devices. With a large number of electric
vehicles access, the charging post will develop harmonic
wave to influence the power distribution network in the
electrical energy conversion process. This paper
introduces the prospect of the electric vehicles based on
the social influence and power quality, and expounds the
advantages and disadvantages. At the same time, by
building the model of the electric vehicles with the actual
which are also the research direction in the future[ll.
1 THE OPERATING PRINCIPLE ANALYSIS
OF THE CHARGING PILES
The operating principle of the charging piles is very
simple. [t changes the alternating current to direct current
to provide power to battery. But the structure of the
charging pile is complex. [t consists of power electronic
equipment, including ACIDC inventor, DCIDC converter,

parameters, this paper analyses the electric vehicle's high-frequency transfonner and so on, and uses certain
impact to grid harmonic and reactive power, and put control methods to realize the function of the charging
forward the solutions and advices to reduce the impact of
pile. So far, along with charging pile technology
electric vehicles. The simulation results show that, the
electric vehicles charging post model will inject much development, the charging pile has three forms: rectifier
harmonic current to improve the current aberrations rate. with no control and chopper, rectifier with no control and
After jiltering, odd harmonic decrease obviously, and the
DCIDC convertor, rectifier with PWM and DCIDC
power factor and the power quality are improved.
convertor.
keywords: The electric vehicles, Charging post,
Harmonic wave, Reactive power distribution 1.1 Rectifier with no control and chopper
network, Power quality This charging device is the earliest production

shown in Fig[(a). The nonlinear electronic devices with

less control methods make much harmonic current

o INTRODUCTION
generate which has much odd hannonic and high THID,
[n recent years, with large of greenhouse gases
to influent the power quality of distribution network.
emission the earth has become warmer and warmer to
Thus, this kind of charging device is not allowed to
cause that the sea levels rise, glaciers melt and so on.
connect to grid.
Every country in the world has begun to pay close

attention to the environment problem. The electric vehicle 1.2 Rectifier with control and DC/DC convertor
as a new kind of traffic tools, uses clean electric power This charging device make some change based on

instead of fossil energy, and has become one of the the first one. [t changes the chopper to high-frequency

direction of the new energy development. It is the transformer shown in Fig1(b), so that it isolates the high

important part of distributed energy in the smart grid, and frequency effectively, reduces ripple wave of the DC

reflects the energy strategy. voltage, and improve the quality of charging. But the

[n our country, because of the stimulus strategy, the nonlinear rectifier device will bring much hannonic to the

electric vehicle industry has developed very well. Beijing, grid and make THID very high, so it can't meet the

Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Shijiazhuang, Lanzhou, requirements of connecting.

etc have built electric vehicle charging stations, and form

1.3 Rectifier with PWM and DC/DC convertor
many pilot projects to provide the research platfonn for The technique of PWM Rectifier is a new rectifier
the study of the electric vehicle industry. Large-scale use method which appears along with the development of
of electric vehicle will affect the electric power system microcomputer control technology, and is used in

CICED2012 Session 4 Paper No CPO 185 Page1/5

.- 2012 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED 2012) Shanghai, 5-6 Sep. 2

controlled power electrical devices to realize the function the power grid. mainly from the perspective of the

of rectifier. It uses pulse way to simulate the change rule distribution network to analyze the impact of electric
2
of AC voltage by certain control methods, so it can vehicles accessl l. As the distribution network is a direct

reduce the harmonic to the grid and improve the power access to the side of the electric vehicles, the greatest

factor and conversion efficiency. impact study of the distribution network, can well

This kind of charging device uses the PWM rectifier understand the characteristics of the charging load, and to

technology to reduce the influence to the grid, and uses find out effective solutions in the power system. Shown

high-frequency DC/DC convertor to reduce the ripple in Figure 2.

I
wave of DC voltage. This charging device gives The impact on the
distribution network
consideration to the power quality of both the grid and the

direct current, has good dynamic characteristic and high

... ... .. ..
conversion efficiency, and can use to the electric vehicle
Load economic Power
industry. But because the charging device can be ha 1 ance ope ra Lion qualily
reliability

controlled, microcomputer control device need to be

-----eS-
added and it will increase the cost. I
,L ...
llistrib Lnbalancc
Line vol La harm
ut ion three
n loss
device
ge on ic
phase

La ::Y' -

0 Fig2 The impact on the operation of distribution network

Lh
'0 0- after the accession of the electrical vehicles
lie OJ
'0 r+
r+
CD CD
rs
2.1 The impact on the load balance of the
.
r-.s distribution network

From the urban load characteristics, the peak period

(a) Topology of the first kind of charging device
of the urban load appears during the day, while the night
Hgh-frequen y is the load valley, the curve shown in Figure 3 is the
convertor
January 1992, 1995 and 1998 daily urban load curve. In

[If
Ca

Uh order to improve the security of the grid and the level of

LC
_
loading rate, Time-of-use electricity price system has

been applied by the national grid and "to avoid the peak,

use peak and valley electricity" has been vigorously

(b) Topology of the second kind of charging device promoting to the residents. Electric vehicles commonly

I High-frcqucn
convertor
y
used during the day and get charged at night, it can

greatly balanced distribution network load, thus

I
improving the distribution network load characteristics,

greatly reducing the operating costs of the grid at low

lib

I
load, making profit to both the residents and the power

grid.

(c) Topology of the third kind of charging device

Fig1 The topology diagram of charging device

2 THE IMPACT ON THE OPERATION OF

DISTRIBUTING NETWORK AFTER THE
ELECTRICAL VEHICLE CONNECT TO THE
GIRD
The electrical vehicle is a new type of load form, its

large-scale integration power grid have certain impact on

CICED2012 Session 4 Paper No CPO 185 Page2/5

.- 2012 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED 2012) Shanghai, 5-6 Sep. 2

PIMW
sequence current was used to indicate the three-phase
4000 ..... ,", . " . ,
.-......... .............. _ ............. .....

unbalanced degree at the electric vehicle access points,

!
3500 , ...... , . , , . .. .. , " ,. .
.. ... .. .. .. . -- l .....
..1;. .,., ... " ... , . .. .
then when a large number of electric vehicles access to
i

3000 " ..,,""", ...... ,..;... . . . . ... Pr',g,k area the distribution network at the same time for charging,
. 'iP9'8'ii'i'.20 ! three-phase imbalance would appear, Therefore the
2.500
;
..-... '.' ... ".'.' .'.. . . -' -.-, .."""'"" .. " ...... ,.......! ... .. .. .... ",i
charging load of the electrical vehicles among the three
[5]
phase should be reasonable allocated .

150()

3 THE SIMULATION STUDY OF

I (X)(l:::.....-::-_--::
... __ -:-':-___-,J 1/11 ELECTRICAL VEHICLE CHARGING PILE
o 10 15
The paper uses PSCADIEMTDC simulation
Fig3 Daily urban load curve
software to establish the module for the structure and

2.2 The impact on the economic operation of the control methods of the charging pile system. Based on the
distribution network above, the paper builds a 10kV distribution network

Distribution network economy mainly includes the system to simulate the environment in which the charging

line loss of distribution network, equipment lifespan and pile changes the alternating current to the direct current to

so on, the main influencing factors include the size of charge the electrical vehicles. By the analysis for the

distribution network voltage, harmonic current, current harmonic of distribution network, we can get the

distribution method and so on. The accession of electrical research results.

vehicle brings harmonic current into distribution network, 3.1 Parameters configuration of the simulation
therefore increase the line current and high transmission module

loss; and it will also input reactive power to the According to the information, the simulation module
distribution network which increased the voltage of part uses the true parameters of the charging device. The
charging device adopts the way of constant voltage and
of the distribution network leading the transformer run in
limited current, and sets DC voltage 345V, AC voltage
a unrated working condition for a long time and reduce 380V, 50HZ. The paper studies the grid harmonic with
the distribution transformer lifespan. As the charging the fixed value resistor instead of battery. The [mal
module is established shown in fig 4.
piles are power electronic devices, the mass accession of
Acl ivc --------,
electric vehicle increase the nonlinear loads in r'i I tc r
Chargin
device
distribution network, which do harm to the normal I
)"--t--t-t--"'l
A 100 0(MVA) rA-----i
operation of the distribution network. Therefore, Q,Q01{'rl]
f--!<:,)l'---+---"1 # 6,2
f"-:O
OO
, (H,-J] -I----t
reasonable change of distribution network operation },,-+-+-+--'jC 100[ 1"-+--+-_---1_---1
_38[kV]
[3]
characteristics and adding device which can improve

the distribution network transmission quality are the

L _______ ...I
necessary measures to ensure the normal operation of

distribution network. Fig4 The module of the charging device

In the figure there are active filter, distribution
2.3 The impact on the power quality of the
network transformer(l OkV/380V), the controlled three
distribution network
phase rectifier, DC filter device, constant value resistor

The impact on the power quality of the distribution and so on. The paper simulate the situations with filter

[4] and without filter, and compare the grid harmonic to get
grid after the accession of electrical vehicles is from
the conclusions.
three factors: the voltage drop, harmonics and unbalanced
3.2 Analysis of the simulation conclusion
current. Voltage distortion existed during the charging
The simulation using PWM method to control
process of the electric vehicle, harmonics current
the rectifier device shown in fig 4 , can get the
generated by the charger may cause damage to the
results as the following:
distribution transformer, protection equipment and cable.

If the ratio of negative sequence current and positive

CICED2012 Session 4 Paper No CPO185 Page3/5

.- 2012 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED 2012) Shanghai, 5-6 Sep. 2

0.080
- !!' three ways to solve the harmonic problem:
0.060 l. Formulate the harmonic standards of the country,
0.040 strengthen the harmonic management, and don't allow the
O.(}20 unqualified device to the grid, to control the harmonic
0.000
level of the power supply system.
-0.020
2. From the devices into consideration, increase the
-0.040
phase number of the convertor to eliminate the low
-0.060
frequency harmonic with the high amplitude and reduce

oos l
-0.080

Harmonics
the RMS of the harmonic current.
3. Seen from the power grid, install dynamic reactive
power compensation devices and filter devices to improve
F-2"472 the ability of reducing harmonic.
Reducing the grid harmonic effectively can
guarantee the supply of the good power, and prepare to
[7]
0.0111 connect many electrical vehicles to the grid .

01.00112 o.
r o. 001lL_
7 3.4 Thinking of the social economic value of
0,0
2 6 17 8 10 I 12 I 14 --;;-
electrical vehicle connecting into the distribution
I [5) 0.01 41 545

Fig 5 The current wave and THD without active network

filter
Along with the development of power electrical
-IS
0.125 technology and the study of the filter technique, the
0.100 charging pile will have less and less impact on the
0.075 distribution network. Instead, certain researches show
0. 050
that if the electrical vehicle can be seen as a form of
c 0.025
:J energy storage and be controlled orderly, it has much
0.000
U social economic value to the distribution network, for
OJ -0.025
example, regulating frequency and peak for grid,
:J 0.050
o
(f) -0.075 improving reliability of the distribution n etwork,
0 100 improving the economy of distribution network

So u rce H a rmo n i cs
operation and so on. But establishing the controlling
system needs much time to study in all aspects. Using
the resource of electrical vehicle to interact with grid
reasonably, is the important research direction in
some years and is the embodiment of the social
economic value.

0.00 2 4 CONCLUSION
0 .0
1..-- According to the operating principle and the
[1) G ()68
structure of the charging pile, the paper states the impact
Fig 6 The current and THO with active filter that the electrical vehicle have on distribution network.
Seen from the above result, when there is no filter By the simulation, the paper studies the charging pile
device, THD in the current is very high, including 5, 7, with the structure of PWM rectifier to [md much odd
11 .etc odd harmonic, and it will lower the power quality harmonic bringed to the grid, and adopts the active filter
of the distribution network
the normal and affect to reduce the harmonic content of the grid to improve the
[6]
operation. After using the filter devices, THD has been power quality effectively. The paper has thought and
reduced obviously to control the harmonic in the anlysed the social ecnomic value of the electircal vehicle,
reasonable scope. Thus, in the early years of electrical which is the reference of the development direction of
vehicles, using filter to ensure the safe operation of the electrical vehicle industry in the future.
distribution network is very necessary.
REFERENCE
3.3 The methods of harmonic treatment

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device of the charging pile will generate much harmonic electric vehicle's charge equipment and its impact to the power
to the distribution network to increase RMS of voltage
grid [1]. Hu bei power, 2009,33(6): 48-50..
and current, and it will cause the life of the power device
to be reduced in the distribution network, so how to
2] Liu Qing. The research of the electric vehicle 's charge
solving the harmonic problem is the challenge in the model and its impact to the power grid [1]. Research and design,
development of the electrical vehicle. So far, there are 20II: 43-46.

CICED2012 Session 4 Paper No CPO185 Page4/5

.- 2012 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED 2012) Shanghai, 5-6 Sep. 2

3] Hu zechun, Song yonghua, Xuzhiwei. Electric Vehicles'

Impact and utilize to the Electric Grid [.T].China electrical
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