Reducing capacity of smart charger for electric vehicles on single-phase three-wire distribution feeders with reactive power control

This paper proposes a new control algorithm to reduce the capacity of the previously proposed smart charger for electric vehicles (EVs) on single-phase three-wire distribution feeders using reactive power control on the source side. The basic principle of the proposed reactive power control algorithm is discussed in detail. It is shown that controlling the reactive power on the source side reduces the capacity of the previously proposed smart charger. A digital computer simulation is carried out to confirm the validity of the proposed control algorithm using PSIM software. A prototype experimental model is constructed and tested. The experimental results demonstrate that balanced source currents with a power factor of 0.9, which conforms to Japanese regulations, are obtained on the secondary side of the pole-mounted distribution transformer during both the battery charging and discharging operations in EVs reducing the capacity of the smart charger by 31% in comparison to that of the smart charger with the previously proposed control algorithm.