Electric vehicles (EVs) are rapidly replacing traditional fuel-driven cars. As UBS predicts, about 20% of new car sales in 2025 will be electric, which will eventually rise to 40% in 2030, and almost 100% by 2040. With this rapid evolution comes the concern of balancing electricity consumption between vehicles and offices, factories, and households. To mitigate the load shift, more and more EV charging stations are adopting a smart EV Charger for a controlled, well-monitored, and cloud-based charging facility.
What are Smart EV Chargers?
Smart EV chargers are intelligent devices that use cloud-based technology to connect the EV, a charging device, the charging operator’s charging management software, and the power grid. They use a centralised algorithm to control electricity consumption from the power grid based on its availability, the cost of electricity at that particular hour of the day, and the needs of the EV driver. This way, Smart chargers can optimise energy consumption, shift charging loads across energy sources, and maintain an equilibrium between energy availability for different endpoints.
How Does Smart EV Charging Work?
For Smart EV Charging, the driver and the car should be registered with the charging provider. As the driver plugs in the charging cable, a connection is established between the charging point and the car. The smart EV charger then recognises the car and initiates the charging session.
On the other hand, communications are also established with other chargers at the location (infrastructure), the power grid, and the operator’s energy management platform. This cloud-based platform then optimises the energy consumption according to the power availability in the grid, monitors the battery charging of the EV, concludes the session when the battery is optimally charged and calculates the bill based on the electricity cost.
Benefits of Smart EV Charging
Intelligent charging not only suffices the requirements of charging network operators and charging station owners but also provides immense benefits to the EV owners.
Benefits to EV owners
As an EV driver, a smart charging facility will benefit you in :
Finding Charging Stations Anywhere
Gone are the days when you roamed about searching for a charging station for your EV. A smart charging platform enables you to locate a nearby charging station on your mobile application, reserve your charging spot on the go, and know the real-time charging power and price.
Fast Charging
Smart charging devices will automatically optimise your charging power according to the energy availability in the grid. Most devices allow a maximum charging power of 22kW, though fast charging may provide nearly 150kW to your electric vehicle, recharging your car’s battery at the minimum time.
Cost-effective
You can save a lot on your bills by charging your EV when the electricity is at its cheapest. This also balances the energy in the grid. Energy providers may also announce incentives to encourage drivers to charge their vehicles at the lower cost hours to avoid stress on the grid.
Benefits to Businesses
Like drivers, the charging businesses owe a lot to smart charging for the following reasons:
Remote Monitoring
A smart management platform allows remote monitoring of charging events, viewing usage statistics, establishing connections with other stations in the network, and controlling the power consumption.
Easy Payments
Smart charging software automatically bills the consumer according to the pre-set price and the power units consumed. The operator gets the payment transferred to his bank account without any hassle.
Smart EV Charging involves a cutting-edge technology of cloud-based charging that easily monitors, controls, and optimises the power consumption by EVs based on availability in the grid. It not only distributes the load, reducing grid stress but also provides easy billing and payments to the operators.