Investigations and Validation of PV-Powered Unified Power Quality Conditioner for Electric Vehicle Smart Charger in Standard AC/DC Hybrid Microgrid Test System

It is well known that increase of nonlinear load such as electric vehicles (EVs) has become the key aspect in booming the power quality (PQ) issues in the power distribution grid. The application of AC/DC hybrid microgrid has become one of major trends in power transmission and distribution. The electric vehicle smart charger in the hybrid AC/DC microgrid (MG) causes PQ issues in the power system and also at the customer end. To uphold the quality of the power according to its standard, series of devices called custom power devices (CPDs) are accustomed. Unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) provides better solution in resolving the PQ-related issues and is emerged as powerful tool in enhancing the standards of power that is supplied to the end user. Novelty in this paper is the analysis of PQ issues due to the penetration of EVs in AC/DC hybrid microgrid and its compensation by photovoltaic (PV)-powered UPQC. The simulation is carried out in MATLAB 2017b platform. Based on the action of UPQC, outcomes are analyzed for three different cases. In each case, three scenarios are discussed based on the charging condition of EV smart charger in both the modes of system operation, i.e., when it is coupled to the grid and also in off-grid mode. Comparative investigation is achieved on the Performance of the PV powered UPQC for compensating the PQ issues caused by the EV charger in AC/DC hybrid microgrid test system and as well as in the standard IEEE 14 bus microgrid (MG) system for validation.