If you own an electric vehicle (EV), one of the biggest headaches is knowing how and when to charge your car. In gas-powered cars, you would come across numerous gas stations along the way where you can fill up your tank whenever the fuel gauge sidles towards empty. But charging electric vehicles requires some prior planning and things have been made a bit easier with the increasing demand as well as incentives for an alternative to fossil fuel cars. Today we have numerous public electric vehicle charging stations all over, making it easier for EV owners to charge their vehicles whenever the need arises.
But what is the smartest thing about the EV charger? EV charging is the use of different software and hardware technologies that enables load management in electric vehicle chargers – usually level 2.
The smartest function of the EV charger is enabled by the intelligent software and hardware that lets it not only automate but also control the charging process of your electric vehicle. The charger can dynamically adjust the electricity sent to your vehicle based on preset configurations. This is achieved by reading the power signals from different devices and controlling and managing the electricity flowing from the charger.
This means that you can just preset your charger and forget and your electric vehicle will be charged in the manner that you want without any manual involvement.
A smart functioning EV charger consists of the following components;
This function is driven by a smart back-end solution designed to bring real-time data from connected charging events and charging devices to your fingertips.
Since stations are linked to the cloud, they can easily be managed and controlled based on different signals, including local power consumption, fickle power production, electrical devices connected to the premise nearby, or the number of EVs being charged.
So basically, an EV charger must be smart in order to build a more viable energy system for electric vehicles.
First, the EV owner needs to identify at a charging point, after which the identification will connect the charging station, the driver as well as the charging event. The correct cost will be charged from the appropriate customer and the funds send to the appropriate owner of the charging station. And because this process is smart, every step occurs automatically.
If you are an EV driver already registered at the charging point, the identification process will be seamless – all you need to do is log in to your app and start to charge your vehicle or alternatively display your RFID tag to the electric charger.
But if you are not registered, you can still use the station, but pay the cost with a debit card or credit card.
The success of the charging process depends on the preset configurations as well as the prices of the charging station. The charging point can be under a station group featuring various smart features in the background.
(Source: Joint Tech EVC10 with smart charging)
Smart charging is particularly beneficial for the energy sector. But other players in the ecosystem also benefit from it, including charging point owners, charging network operators, and most importantly EV drivers/owners.
Here is how each benefits from the intelligent function of the EV charger:
EV drivers: As an EV driver, you will no longer have to worry about where and how you are going to charge your vehicle.
With the smart functioning of the EV charger, you will find nearby charging points for your vehicle.
Through the mobile app, you will access information such as charging price and power as well as real-time data on the availability of charging points.
You will also experience faster charging since the smart device automatically uses the maximum energy available.
But safety is key. The intelligent function of the EV charger ensures not only fast but also safer charging. This function will spontaneously check the connection between the device and your electric car before it allows charging to proceed. Moreover, each charging event is monitored and can be managed remotely.
Last but not least, this feature can save you money and even make you environmentally conscious. Optimizing the timetable of your EV charging events to charge only during low power consumption is not only cost-saving but also helps in grid balancing.
As know, the number of electric vehicles is steadily increasing and more flexibility is needed now rather than later.
EV charging networks can also benefit from the smart function of the EV charger. Intelligent charging allows charging networks to serve different charging stations via your own network.
The networks can help stabilize the grid since intelligent charging events can be monitored based on several signals. For instance, can be set to automatically begin when energy demand is low. The ability to monitor and control charging using various energy consumption and production signals provides EV charging networks with new opportunities.
The UK Smart Charging Regulations set clear requirements for smart charging technology, interoperability, security and data monitoring, and set the direction of technology improvement and market development for the EV charging equipment industry.
DIN 70121 is an early CCS DC fast charging communication protocol that provides basic vehicle-charger communication but it has no advanced authentication and security cryptography.
OTA（Over-The-Air）, means it can remotely upgrade software by the wireless network. It has become an important menthol to improving EV charger performance and user’s experience.
