Cities and municipalities around the world are planning a new class of street furniture. They are looking at the issues of permitting, installation and maintenance of EVSE’s (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment).
Much has been written already about the building & electric codes that must be followed for installations.
However there are open questions regarding what maintenance is required for the public Charging stations. In the US we’re seeing requirements for regular preventative maintenance each month or quarter.
The main goals are to ensure that the EV Charging stations are 100% safe and provide reliable operation to the public. This is new high voltage technology being installed in varied and sometimes extreme environments. There are up to seventy new vendors of Charging Stations. For all these reasons it’s wise to be extra careful.
If a problem or technical issue does occur, there must be clear support and maintenance processes in place to react in a timely manner to resolve the issue. The main goal for the EV Charging network operator is to take the support burden and responsibility away from the client location, whether it’s city owned parking or a commercial property.
Many of the new public EVSE products coming to market have integrated communications in the form of wireless modems (GPRS etc). The primary purposes of these communications are to enable centralized payment, authentication and access controls from the Charging station back to a central network management datacenter. The secondary benefit of these communications links is that the network can monitor each Charging station’s status and health. This is known as remote asset management in networking.
From a support perspective, the technical issues may arrive through multiple channels:
- Fault detected through remote management system
- Call , Email or Text from Driver/User
- Call, Email or Text from property owner
- Preventative maintenance inspection & test.
The remote management system will alert the operator to some issues, but to get complete coverage, regular local inspection and tests are required.
If a call out to the EV Charging Station location is required, the Electrician should be equipped with portable equipment that can test the safety and functionality of the EVSE. A test report should be saved to prove that the equipment is operational.
In my next blog I’ll discuss the recommended testing & reporting for Electricians who are maintaining the EVSE’s.
Neal Roche
You suggest that the US may begin to require maintenance checks on EV charging stations. Are there any legal requirements on the books, at this time? If so, where can I find those requirements? If, instead, you are suggesting that you see these things occurring in the near future, when are you expecting these laws to pass, and what makes you believe that the requirements will be passed in that time frame?
Hi Nick
Thanks for commenting. I haven’t seen any legal requirements yet for maintenance checks in the US. We have seen some cities and Utilities request maintenance checks in their RFP (tenders) for EVSE installation services. I’m not advocating for new laws. I’d rather share industry best practices and then people can make their own informed decision.
Neal
What alot of folks do not know is the inherant danger with these charging stations…..(before ppl start bashing me) I am a Certified in the EVSE Program..
We have done numerous hours of research and the charging stations itself is safe and the Manufacturers have done an excellent job in doing so.
Once a Charging station is hit or knocked off its base and there is a strong possibility it doesnt ground or arc to trip the fuse panel. There needs to be a safety device that will shut the power off at the source if the station is hit hard enough to knock off its base. It is a given, the more obstacles, the bigger chance these stations will get hit. Its just a matter of time before someone gets killed or injured and gives the industry a black eye. We feel this was a major oversight on all of the Manufacturers and their high priced Engineers.
Hi James
That’s a good point. I know some Charging stations have pillars to prevent them from being hit by vehicles. But I don’t know if this is required by all cities/counties.
Neal
On this note, some of the manufacturers are offering the option of supplying the charge posts with a tilt switch and communications channel back to a feeder pillar breaker which will trip in the event of the charge post being knocked over. Costs are high however. At a minimum the utility should be installing ground fault devices in the feeder pillar (assuming one exists).
Hi John,
I wonder which Manufacturers are offering this for their charging station. Me and my Business partner owns an IP that we created to prevent electrocution. We designed a device that has sensors etc. that will detect force, inertia etc in case a station is hit by a vehicle. We developed this over a year ago and received our Patent last year…
Our purpose is to protect our Citizens and our First Responders from any dangers. We are working aggressively to get this safety device implemented immediately.
Keep an eye out for Greenstar Concepts