Smart demand vehicle charging solution

Our objective:

To scope, design and develop a production and scale-ready solution that would enable the energy supplier to offer smart in-home vehicle charging that:

• enabled demand management of supply (especially peak supply) to and from the grid
• lowered carbon generation intensity
• reduced charging costs for customers

Compliance

Ensuring hardware and software compliance with the necessary standards including CHAdeMO and safety.

Performance monitoring

Various system level sensors were incorporated into the design and development to provide monitoring data on:

• Safety critical operations e.g. Earth leakage, Insulation leakage, Switching, Process interlocks, Emergency stop detection
• Load management operations in line with National Grid requirements
• Voltage, current, power consumption, power factor reporting including AC Current, DC Voltage, DC Current.
• Application layer functionality such as Load Control match and Firm Frequency Response (FFR), Charging, Load Switching and Metering operations

The outcome:

• The client was able to develop and scale their concept without costly delays or issues, to offer their customers a state-of-the-art in-home vehicle charging solution, reducing their bills and importantly, reducing demand load and carbon generation.
• The client is able to collect important data to provide insight to their customers and National Grid, but also monitor performance and prevent any potential issues becoming bigger problems.

Our deep experience of delivering end-to-end product development meant we designed with scale in mind. This meant the client could take the product to market quickly and efficiently, with no delays and in full compliance of safety legislation.