Vehicle-to-Grid Reactive Power Operation Using Plug-In Electric Vehicle Bidirectional Offboard Charger

The number of offboard fast charging stations is increasing as plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are more widespread in the world. Additional features on the operation of chargers will result in more benefits for investors, utility companies, and PEV owners. This paper investigates reactive power support operation using offboard PEV charging stations while charging a PEV battery. The topology consists of a three-phase ac-dc boost rectifier that is capable of operating in all four quadrants. The operation modes that are of interest are power-factor-corrected charging operation, and charging and capacitive/inductive reactive power operation. This paper also presents a control system for the PQ command following of a bidirectional offboard charger. The controller only receives the charging power command from a user and the reactive power command (when needed) from a utility, and it adjusts the line current and the battery charging current correspondingly. The vehicle's battery is not affected during the reactive power operation. A simulation study is developed utilizing PSIM, and the control system is experimentally tested using a 12.5-kVA charging station design.