Impact of Fast Charging Stations on Grid Quality

Abstract

The Electric Circuit, an initiative of Hydro-Quebec, is the most important network of public charging stations for electric vehicles (EV) in Quebec. He establishes a major initiative in the deployment of the charging infrastructure to support the arrival of the electric vehicles in Quebec.The fast charging station allows recharging 80 % of the battery of an electric vehicle in about twenty minutes. The state-of-the-art superstation offers four 50-kilowatt fast-charge stations that can simultaneously charge one vehicle each. Designed by a Québec firm, the superstation has an adaptable configuration that renders its installation optimizable, making possible both the addition of charging stations and the integration of new, more powerful technologies. Two vendors have won the call for proposals to supply 50-kW fast-charge stations to the Electric Circuit. One of them has started adding stations to the network in the fall of 2017, and the second one, as of spring 2019.All proposed charging stations went through rigorous climate testing at Hydro-Québec’s research institute (IREQ). The fast charging models DCFC (50kW/400V) also underwent a power quality impact evaluation, over three stages:Start-up,Full charge,End of the process.Equipped with power electronic (PE) interfaces, these charging stations are causing waveform distortions. This paper addresses the Electric Circuit project implemented in Quebec and discusses the results of the tests performed at the IREQ’s facility on the impact of two different models/vendors of DCFC (50kW/400V) fast charging stations on Power Quality.