Impact of bidirectional EV charging stations on a distribution network: a Power Hardware-In-the-Loop implementation

The need for decarbonizing the entire energy system calls for new operational approaches in different sectors, currently (almost) fully dominated by fossil fuels, such as the transports. In particular, the decarbonization of the light-duty passenger transport, based on the implementation of Battery Electric Vehicles, may have a twofold benefit, because of (i) the reduction of local and global direct emissions, and (ii) the role that the Battery Electric Vehicles can have in supporting the operation of the power system in case of large share of non-dispatchable renewable energy sources. This paper aims to investigate, through a Power Hardware-In-the-Loop laboratory setup, the impacts of the Vehicle-to-Grid and Grid-to-Vehicle paradigms on a Low Voltage grid portion serving as grid infrastructure an energy community. The results show that the Low Voltage grid losses, if not taken into account, can cause a wrong evaluation of the expected impact on the grid of the Battery Electric Vehicles. Furthermore, the harmonics of current injected into the grid by several chargers could compromise the perceived power quality. Both the analyzed aspects must be hence carefully considered for properly evaluating pros and cons that the installation of several chargers may have on the grid side. The main contributions refer to the calculation of losses and to the evaluation of the power quality aspects through a Power Hardware-In-the-Loop configuration, enabling to take into account the harmonics interaction between charging stations and power grid.