Modeling and Testing of a Bidirectional Smart Charger for Distribution System EV Integration

Abstract

This paper proposes a model of a single-phase bidirectional electric vehicle (EV) charger with capability of operating in all four quadrants of the P-Q plane. The steady-state and step responses of the proposed model are used to validate it based on the actual responses of a bidirectional charger prototype for different P-Q requests. The model can be used efficiently in time-domain simulations that require models of a number of EV chargers, such as EV integration studies in low-voltage (LV) distribution networks. A practical case study is presented to demonstrate and test the proposed smart charger and model, investigating the provision of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) for active and reactive power in an LV residential distribution network. These results demonstrate the advantages of the presented charger model for developing V2G strategies in distribution networks.