EV Charging: What Is Advanced Load Management Technology?

People now want to charge where they park – at home, in apartment complexes, at work and during their hotel stays. This is a shift in demand from the traditional gas depot refueling model located in between destinations to an electric top-off “refueling” model located where people park. Business owners and facility managers need to reconsider their business models and think about how to incorporate EV charging amenities into their property’s layout. 

Few existing buildings and local grids were designed to support EV charging, posing additional risk to deploying widespread EV infrastructure. EV charger service providers and utilities are tasked with addressing this barrier to scalability in addition to providing the safe, reliable and convenient charging access that the growing EV driving population expects. How will a network of EV chargers impact a property’s electrical panel and local electrical grid? How can a charger provider safely and affordably scale their EV offerings to meet increasing demand?

Some common problems EV charger owners encounter when trying to support simultaneous EV charging include:

• Increased Utility Costs: Charger owners may accrue high utility costs when multiple EVs attempt to charge at the same time, especially during peak demand hours. To accommodate the additional electrical load, local utility companies may also need to invest in extensive grid upgrades, which can be unattainably expensive and time-consuming.
• Inefficient Energy Use: Simultaneous EV charging not properly managed can lead to inefficient energy use as a site's available power capacity is not optimized.
• Grid Instability: The sudden surge of electricity demand from multiple EV chargers can overwhelm local grids, resulting in disruptions of the supply and even widespread blackouts.

Defining Advanced Load Management

Advanced load management technology is a smart charging solution designed to intelligently distribute and optimize the electrical load when charging electric vehicles. It ensures that the charging process is fast and convenient for EV drivers, but also cost-effective for charger providers and sustainable for the overall power grid. The technology serves as a bridge between increasing demand for EV charging and the capacity limitations of existing electrical infrastructure.

How Advanced Load Management Works

As of today, the problem with scaling EV charger infrastructure is three-fold:

• Electrical grids cannot support the full demand of every commercial EV charging station used at maximum capacity all at once.
• Individual station owners and site managers cannot afford the high cost of energy required to power each station at full capacity for each charging session on their site.
• EV drivers need to rely on charging station availability without experiencing disruptions in service due to unstable electrical flows or periodic outages.

With advanced load management, the EV charger owner can control how much power can be used at once across multiple chargers on the same commercial site. The load management software allocates power to each charger proportionately as additional vehicles begin simultaneously charging at multiple stations. The intelligent charging distribution keeps the electrical supply stable by capping each charger’s power expenditure so as not to exceed the capacity limits of the property’s electrical panel or the limitations of the local grid. The load management also assists with reducing energy consumption during the more expensive peak energy demand periods.

• Cost Savings: Utility companies avoid adding expensive infrastructure upgrades. Charger owners do not acquire high utility costs. And EV drivers will experience more affordable charging prices.
• Fast, Convenient Charging: With energy efficiency optimized, EV drivers will enjoy a smoother charging experience with reduced wait times and faster charging.
• Robust Reliability: Prevents overloading the charging site’s electrical panel and local utility grid, resulting in consistent, reliable electricity flow and no power outages.
• Safe, Affordable Scaling: Charger owners can scale their EV offerings at a fraction of the cost without taxing their property’s electrical panel or the local utility grid.

LOAD MANAGEMENT OUTPUTS:

• When a new charging session starts that would cause the load to exceed the building’s set maximum, the load of existing ongoing charging sessions is automatically adjusted down so that total power output returns to the target level.
• When a charging session ends, the load of remaining ongoing charging sessions is adjusted up automatically to utilize the freed-up load.
• When the site host manually adjusts the maximum load level (up or down), all ongoing charging sessions adjust accordingly to keep total power below the new target level.

The AmpUp charging network currently operates a dynamic, equitable load management system that allocates available power across chargers, proportional to the charger voltage capabilities. However, future load management features will include charging priority for specific vehicles – most helpful in a fleet of known commercial vehicles – and the ability to dictate charging priority based on a vehicle’s current battery State of Charge.

Note: A PRO Subscription from AmpUp is required to activate the load control functionality with installed chargers.

Managing Load Control within AmpUp Community Manager:

1. Launch the AmpUp Community Manager.
2. Navigate to the Locations Dashboard and select charger location.
3. Select Operations.
4. Move the slider on the screen to the desired load limit. Available in increments of 1kW.
5. Changes are saved automatically and chargers in that location will now dynamically manage their load based on the limit set.