Although often in easily-accessible public places that are well-served by infrastructure, public EV charge points, or charging piles, within multi-charger sites, need communications capabilities in addition to electricity connections. It may seem obvious that fixed line connections could be run to terminals but this does not take account of large car parks at highway service areas that are seldom being networked by cables. In addition adoption of wireless connectivity can simplify and accelerate charge point roll-out and provide a useful back-up to fixed connectivity.
The connectivity is needed so the charge point can meter usage, identify users and bill accordingly. They are also essential so charge point operators (CPOs) can monitor site status in real-time in order to book maintenance, understand demand and ensure payment. Even in cases where fixed line connections are available, a wireless back up makes sense because, it can help ensure a charge point remains operational. In this competitive market in which customers rely intensively on access to charging, downtime is unacceptable and CPOs can’t afford reputational damage nor lost revenue from non-operational sites.
“The integration of communications equipment in EV charging stations can improve operations and the delivered service noticeably in several ways”, Caspar Jansson, an IoT Analyst at Berg Insight has explained. “Charging stations can be equipped with load balancing functions to reduce strain on local grids, while charge point operators can monitor and manage their charging stations remotely. Electric vehicle drivers, in turn, can locate chargers, monitor charging availability, book chargers and manage payments using a smartphone app.”
EV chargers need to collect information including the vehicle ID, service type, charging volume and state of charge (SOC), capacity of charging and recharging current and the vehicle departure time. All these inputs and data need to be passed together with the charging point or pile’s ID and location information to the CPO and then from the pile to the EV itself. From a communications perspective, none of this is complex and relatively small amounts of data are involved with limited requirements for low latency.
Services can readily be supported by highly available 3G and 4G cellular connections, with higher speeds and lower latency enabling improved performance for new versions of charging piles which could be updated over-the-air, for example.
For full texts, open the attached file.Quectel_ How wireless connectivity adds value to EV charging points
