Reduction of Harmonics in On-Board Battery Chargers of Electric Vehicles with Flexible Voltage Using ANN

Abstract

This article presents the development of an On-board Battery Charger (OBC) for Electric Vehicles (EVs) designed to comply with the IEEE-519 Power Quality (PQ) standard. The OBC is engineered to draw current from the power grid with minimal Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and a high-Power Factor (PF), eliminating the need for additional power factor correction devices. The core innovation lies in the integration of an Active Harmonic Minimization (AHM) filter and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) controller. The AHM filter effectively mitigates harmonic currents on the grid side, while the ANN controller optimizes the system to significantly reduce THD in the input line current. The AC-DC conversion stage operates reliably at line frequency, and a non-isolated DC-DC converter facilitates multiple charging modes, including Constant Current (CC), Constant Voltage (CV), and dynamic modes, to ensure efficient charging of EV batteries. The performance of the proposed OBC, particularly in terms of THD and PF, is thoroughly evaluated using MATLAB/Simulink simulations, with the results confirming satisfactory improvements in power quality and charging efficiency.