FEATURE AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS
FUEL FOR ELECTRICAL THOUGHT
Words by Julian Skidmore, Senior Software Engineer, ByteSnap T
he EV sector is booming. Figures from August 2019 revealed that EV
registrations are up by 377.5 per cent, to take a 3.4 per cent market share. While the rate of adoption is strong, the supplementary charging infrastructure is struggling to keep pace. The UK has a fragmented market with a spread of AC and DC chargers, and is a long way from the end goal of driving into a space where an EV will automatically charge, with hassle-free payment. The market today consists of multiple charge point providers; chiefly, destination or AC chargers that are used at work and home, and en route fast DC chargers that offer a 50kW charge in 40 minutes, powering most EVs from 20-80 per cent. Competition is fierce in the destination charger sector, with different options for installation and grants available. However, for waypoint charging, there is a significant problem with a lack of fast chargers. As the market is fractured, there is limited standardisation, with different networks, interfaces, payment processes and apps.
While no company is dominating the UK charge point market, Chargemaster’s Polar Network is the largest public charging network, linking over 7,000 public charging points. The vast majority of charging is currently done at home or work and covers a reasonable range: many EV owners don’t have access to waypoint charging. However, with the predicted demise of
petrol cars by 2040, the infrastructure that provides electricity will not meet the new demand from EVs. Therefore, a system needs to evolve to prevent overloading the supply network when plugging-in thousands of vehicles. Load balancing on the grid is critical.
This is where smart chargers offer a solution. Smart charging will reduce high peaks of electricity demand, minimising the cost of electric vehicles to the wider
12 NOVEMBER 2019 | ELECTRONICS
balance the supply network under dynamic conditions.
electric ecosystem – and keeping costs down for consumers by encouraging off-peak charging. All government- funded charge points for electric vehicles must use smart technology from July 2019. This means charge points must be remotely accessible, and capable of receiving, interpreting and reacting to a signal.
SMART CHARGING ByteSnap developed electronics and software for EV chargers for the London Olympics and has now developed RAY - a smart charge point communications controller that brings together the Open Charge Point Protocol 2.0 (OCCP) and multiple communication methods, including GSM, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This enables the transition from dumb to smart charger, and supports companies as they create their own charger brands. Using either OCPP 1.6 or 2.0, RAY controls the charging cycle, instructing the charger when and by what rate to charge or even discharge at (only with supporting DC chargers). It takes care of identification and authorisation, and can be connected to RFID readers. It can communicate directly to a back office (CSMS) or a building management system (BMS), allowing local load balancing of the power. RAY also communicates to a BMS directly, without going through the cloud. This provides low latency, local load balancing control and can be very useful to DC chargers that also allow bi-directional power transfer to load
VEHICLE TO GRID ByteSnap is also part of an Innovate UK-funded consortium that is focusing on a new communication and control platform for Vehicle-to-Grid/Building (V2G/V2B) systems: an off-vehicle system that controls how, when and the rate at which electric vehicle batteries are charged/discharged with respect to local substation constraints, and EV and/or building energy requirements. V2G allows surplus electricity to flow back into the building, reducing the amount a building is taking from the grid. As V2G provides a method of storing renewable energy, EVs and buildings have the potential to create power stations. For example, a supermarket car park can become a mini power station. A huge amount of work is required on
the grid over the next few decades; the charger journey is moving from socket-on-the-wall to inductive charging, and covers a number of steps: 1.
Making the charger smart, allowing full monitoring and control 2.
V2G with the charging
infrastructure passing power both ways 3.
ISO 15118 – widespread
implementation of this international standard communication interface for bi-directional charging/discharging of electric vehicles 4.
Inductive charging
The smart charging industry is currently at step one. However, with EV sales rocketing, the industry is rising to the challenge of developing solutions that will help build a smarter charging infrastructure, where EVs will help to power the grid and drivers will no longer suffer from range anxiety.
ByteSnap
www.bytesnap.com / ELECTRONICS
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