EV Express Charging Solutions

What charging do I need to convert my fleet to EV?

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There are some key things to assess, to create an effective EV charging design…

What is the daily behaviour of your fleet? By that we mean some key questions:

1. What distances does each vehicle travel and does that vary significantly?
2. Where are the vehicles kept overnight – at a depot, or at employee home?
3. How important will en-route or daytime charging be?
4. What is the size of the fleet – both currently and in the next 5 – 10 years?
5. What is the current available power supply?
We can support with the analysis here.

By building a pattern of vehicle use, it will become clear whether you need a depot-led or home-led or en-route-led solution, or very possibly a mix of all 3.

Depot Charging

Where the fleet stays overnight, and which vehicles may need daytime charging are the key start points. If vehicles are based in a depot, then predominately fast overnight charging (7 – 22kw) may support most vehicles. These chargers can also be daisy chained connected and use dynamic load management. This means that the power us intelligently shared to the vehicles that are newly connected, and they gain charging preference over vehicles that are already holding some charge. Daisy chaining also reduces installation cost as there is less cabling involved and is a popular solution. Many chargers in car park settings are daisy chained. In the design, it would benefit from having an over-provision of chargers, so it is easy for the vehicle to find a charger. This would then save time in trying to manage the charging provision, etc.
Where some vehicles need daytime charging, then there would need to be some rapid charging provision. Again, dynamic load management is used here, with a power stack distribution to satellite chargers.

Supply needed

To understand what your power supply needs are, it is best to look at what is your current demand. Take 2 simple actions: 1. Take a photo of your open distribution board, so the demand on the system can be analysed. 2. Install a monitoring device for a few weeks that can measure demand accurately over your busiest periods. We can support you in this.
If you have a relatively small fleet which is depot based, it may be that your existing supply can meet the demand of charging for your vehicles. But if you need a rapid charging provision, then you will probably need to enhance your supply or ask for new supply. By asking for a new supply, this would allow you to dedicate this supply for EV charging, so the power goes to a feeder pillar your car park or charging area and not via your business building. This has advantages, especially when planning for future need.
To help that discussion with your supply provider (Distribution Network Operator), it is often easiest to use an Independent Connections Provider (ICP) as the g—between. The ICP can generate the connection offer from the DNO. This is the cost of supply to the Point of Connection (POC). The ICP can then cost for works to take that supply from the POC to the feeder pillar and then onto the chargers on site.
To work out the supply needed, think carefully about the future fleet transition, so what further EV charging demand may you have in the years to come. Requesting that supply now could be a most cost-effective way of mapping out your EV fleet transition.

Home and en-route charging

If vehicles are kept at an employee’s home, software is available to separate out EV charging from general household electric use, so separate billing is shown. This could work as a solution, with a home charger installed at an employee property. Some businesses have chosen to be more reliant on using the public charging network for en-route charging of their vehicle. The cost of charging is proportionally more, but it is . By having an RFID card linked to the vehicle, this means that a driver can just swipe and go, and all billing comes straight through to the business.

Back-office systems
Many back-office systems are agnostic, so that allows for a mix of charger types to all be integrated onto the 1 back-office platform so you can monitor charger performance, usage, costs, and incomes. Software also records the total emissions saved, so there is plenty of data for CSR reporting.

Maintenance and warranties

Installers and manufacturers provide a range of maintenance packages and warranties. There are also SLA agreements over maximising uptime and response times. Most maintenance and performance issues can be quickly fixed remotely through 4G connectivity.

Overview

This is an overview of issues to think about when looking at charging for EV fleet transition. Click here to contact us if you would like to know more.

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