Characterization of the impact of PV and EV induced voltage variations on LED lamps in a low voltage installation

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) systems, Electric vehicles (EV) and LED lamps have gained significant popularity in our current society. It is therefore common to find customer installations with all three operating together. PV and EV are known sources of voltage variations on the grid. The impact of these voltage variations on LED lamps situated in close proximity to PV or EV in a low voltage installation, in terms of overvoltage, undervoltage, and rapid voltage changes is systematically studied in a laboratory environment in this paper. Such variations can cause malfunctioning of the lamp based on its immunity and tolerance level or be disturbing to the end-user based on the intensity of variations and rate of recurrence of being subjected to such variations. In this work, the observed impacts on LED lamps are illustrated as 15 different cases. The scope of this work is to identify the possible impacts due to voltage variations induced by PV and EV systems on LED lamps and the potential problems that could happen long term due to recurrent subjection of such voltage variations.