Flexible controls could boost EV charging station reliability

EVs and charging stations have aspired to offer EV drivers with something that rivals the turnaround time of gas stations.

While charge rates are vital, reliability and easily with the ability to get a charge, ultimately, are perhaps more small print that some charging networks appear to have glossed over in the method.

In response to a 2023 study, roughly 20% of EV public charging attempts fail. Then again, if there’s a problem at a gas pump that appears operational, it’d run a little bit slower, but it surely typically won’t shut down completely, rendered inoperable. 

A gaggle of U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researchers have kept that concept in mind with a project. They seek to get EV charging closer to that gas-station experience—by aiming so as to add resilience around two typical issues at high-power charging stations. And it appears constructing a little bit more flexibility into the station layout and controls is likely to be all it takes.

Experts: EV charger shutdowns often unwarranted

As ORNL identified in an update on the efforts earlier this month, either of the 2 issues focused on by its team of researchers—sudden voltage drops to the station, or power fluctuations inside chargers—will be remedied in a way that doesn’t shut out chargers until a maintenance visit or distant restart.

The answer to one among them, a sudden voltage drop, is as easy as a “ride through” algorithm that restores power seconds later when it typically returns. As they indicate, that not only helps the tip user but additionally helps assure there isn’t a corresponding voltage surge. 

Presently, such a voltage drop can render chargers useless, requiring a maintenance visit to re-activate them when the equipment is advantageous.

Contained in the charging cabinet, a charger may shut down attributable to a fault when one among its three power modules has a problem. In response to the researchers, algorithms, it might higher serve customers who simply need a charge if the control strategy allowed the opposite two to compensate somewhat and supply reduced overall power until a repair, moderately than shutting down. 

You’d be more satisfied should you got a charge, with an apology that’s was a bit slower than usual, moderately than no charge in any respect, right?

GM and Pilot Company’s EV charging network

EV charging stations have to be more gas-station-like?

For higher reliability benefiting from these ideas, the researchers point to a distinct form of layout versus present-day charging stations—with a “multilayered approach for control and communication” across a charging station that “resembles a gas station with many pumps.” At it, a system-wide controller would alter equipment settings based on issues at individual chargers, to maximise performance and uptime. 

The federal government is tackling EV charger reliability within the U.S. infrastructure buildout, and thru its Charge X consortium it’s already focused in on several features that quantity to a tangle of technical barriers, including non-standardized error reporting and payment issues.

It’s not surprising that automakers have advanced, opting to create their very own networks in some cases—just like the upcoming Supercharger-rivaling Ionna—moderately than ally with existing ones. Rivian has even adopted a grading system for public chargers that will probably be used for its own dynamic route planning.