Electric Vehicle Chargers can introduce power quality challenges, especially with respect to harmonic distortion.  This includes both low frequency and high frequency harmonics and is particularly evident in Public Fast Charging networks.  Mirus has prepared a slide deck that describes this issue.  A passive rectifier charger can be equipped with Mirus’ Lineator AUHF filter to eliminate low and high frequency harmonics and meet IEEE Std 519 requirements.  Active rectifier chargers, which are designed to reduce the low frequency harmonics, can introduce switching harmonics at higher frequencies where interaction with the power system and other connected equipment can be a significant problem.  ‘Evaluating Supraharmonics up to 150 kHz in Electric Vehicles at the University of Applied Sciences Bingen’ is a paper referenced in the slide deck that documents this condition.

Supraharmonics are voltage or current waveform distortions in the range of frequencies between 2 kHz and 150 kHz. Rapid growth in distributed and embedded inverter technology and active rectifier loads are contributing to the increase in Supraharmonics found on power systems.