Things are moving quickly in the EV world and none more so than with EV chargers. Gone of the days of buying a chargepoint socket that sits on the wall of your house and or business and you simply plug the vehicle in and away you go (although this can still be achieved) Due to a mixture of government regulations and the need to enhance the customer’s experience new ‘Smart’ features are now built in to all EV chargers available on today’s market.
We must stress that not every charger has all of these features, but here is a selection of the most commons features, why they are needed and the benefits to the customer.
Schedule Charging
A common smart feature in most chargers. This enables a customer to set when they want to charge their vehicle. This would work in conjunction with when your energy provider offers a cheaper tariff to charge at night, ensuring you are charging at the cheapest rate possible. In return the distribution network operators are happy as they encourage charging to be done at night when the demand on the grid is at its lowest.
The schedule feature also prevents EV drivers from the ‘forgetting to put the bins out scenario’ and having to physically plug the car in as soon as the cheaper tariff kicks in.
With the schedule charge feature turned on an EV driver can for example set to only charge their car between 10pm and 6am, which may be when their energy provider offers a cheaper rate. The driver may return home around 5/6pm and plug their car in as soon as they park up. With the scheduled charge feature set up, the cable will lock into the EV but the charging will only commence at 10pm when scheduled to do so.
Delay Charging
This feature was introduced by law in July 2022. Delay charging will become a more important feature the more chargepoints are installed. This feature prevents a blackout scenario from happening in the event that a whole neighbourhood plug their cars in at the same time. The delay charging feature is actually as it states, the charger will commence any time from 30 seconds up to ten minutes after plugging the car in or when the scheduled charge begins. This is completely random and changes daily, doing this eliminates a large number of units drawing power from the grid at once.
Load balancing
Another safety feature that most chargepoints provide to ensure the main fuse of a property or building doesn’t become affected by the chargepoint drawing full capacity along with other electrical items that are plugged in and switched on at the same time.
A chargepoint with this feature will monitor the load being used and adjust the amount of power it draws out to prevent the main fuse from blowing. Upon commissioning of the chargepoint the main fuse size is communicated to the chargepoint and through a CT connection, for example the charger will monitor the load at all times. In practice if a charger is plugged in and charging a car at a domestic property it may send the maximum power it can to the car as other appliances aren’t in use within the home. If said property has an electric shower and it’s turned on (another high load appliance) the charger will notice this and automatically reduce the power it draws until more load becomes available i.e. the shower is then turned off. This is a great feature for domestic customers who may have high load appliances such as electric showers, hot tubs all being used at once.
Solar compatibility
Some chargepoints have the ability to connect with the solar on the same property. This demonstrates the most eco efficient way of charging a car. Any excess solar power that is being produced can be sent to the EV charger to charge the vehicle. This enables the customer to fully maximise the solar usage they are generating.
Chargepoint Locking
An important security feature that modern chargepoints have available. Using the app that comes with your chargepoint, you as the owner can physically lock your unit by tapping the lock button within the app. This prevents any EV driver from pulling on your drive and charging their EV without permission. They would be able to plug their lead into the socket but if the lock feature is activated, they won’t be able to draw out a charge.
With new security features built into chargepoint, you as the chargepoint owner would receive an alert to say someone has plugged into your chargepoint.
Over the air updates
As all smart chargepoints require a connection to the network, they are able to receive regular over the air updates. These updates ensure the chargepoint continues to provide the required safety features both whilst charging and whilst in an idle state. As regulations are introduced, software updates can be downloaded on these chargepoints to ensure they continue to meet the required standards.
All in all, your EV charger is quote smart. They have many useful features ensure the customer can optimise charging efficiency, cut energy consumption costs and integrate with renewable technologies. For commercial customers, smart chargepoints with OCPP compatibility can open up revenue generating opportunities through adding tariffs and standing charges for the use of your chargepoint(s).
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