Mitigation of PHEV charging impact on transformers via a PV-APF harmonic compensation technique: Application to V2G integration

This paper addresses the impacts on distribution transformers due to increasing PHEV loads on the distribution infrastructure, while conducting PV compensation (harmonics compensation). The authors have addressed the utilization of a rapid-prototyping control methodology coupled with a real-time digital simulator to facilitate the integration of a Photovoltaic (PV) inverter with the grid. Multi-string PV modules with a centralized inverter are considered, and the PV inverter is controlled to function as an Active Power Filter (APF). The harmonics on the grid-side are mitigated by the PV inverter and harmonic extraction is done via a novel time-domain technique. All simulations are conducted utilizing PSCAD, and the transformer losses are calculated using MatLab/Simulink. The losses (core-losses and magnetizing current losses), aging, and temperature effects on the distribution transformers due to the increasing PHEV loads, and the utilization of PV compensation to mitigate the impact, are the focus of this work.