A methodology to reach high power factor during multiple EVs charging

The paper suggests a new methodology to increase the PF of a hub for EV charging. A smart management of the EV charging sessions allows to impose the stand-by operation of a vehicle based on the local PF value at EV charging points. Current harmonics are taken into account to ensure an effective improvement of the hub power quality. The case study of this paper consists of a hub for EV charging with a dedicated MV/LV substation, enriched by an experimental dataset containing measurements of 13 EVs during charging in terms of active and reactive power profiles, current harmonics, PF trends. The model is developed in Simulink environment and the proposed algorithm is implemented in a MATLAB script. The results highlight that in case of multiple EV charging sessions, the algorithm is able to maintain the hub PF value greater than the acceptable PF threshold limit. This scenario is expectable in real conditions, e.g. EV hubs near shopping centres or in cities with high population density.