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Smart charging and 3 other EV software innovations

Electric vehicles (EVs) are gaining significant market shares, thanks to mature technology, encouragements, and plans for progressive decarbonization. Governments are still working on electric vehicles and renewable energy regulations while those industries are scaling extremely quickly. Digital transformation creates the base for the energy transformation we are observing. It helped maintain business continuity and performance in one of the most challenging and fast-changing industries. Software innovations like smart charging have been put into practice and delivered great value for the electric vehicles industry. They helped with: optimizing energy transmission, reducing energy loss, increasing efficiency, and cost reduction. In this article, we discuss 4 game-changing EV charging solutions.

1. Smart charging

Smart charging is an advanced cloud-based charging system that allows electric vehicles, charging stations, and charging operators to share information. The connection allows remote monitoring, managing, and limiting charging stations to optimize energy consumption.

Smart charging enables power-sharing, allowing power grid operators to distribute accessible energy proportionally on all available charging stations. Hence, a smart charging system helps load balancing through the optimal energy distribution without any changes in the existing charging station infrastructure.

Smart charging flattens the electricity usage peak by shifting the peak due to vehicle charging away from the peak due to other consumption. This feature, called power boost, prevents overdrawing the maximum energy capacity accessible at the charging station. It is significant for homeowners with EV charger that need to manage their electricity load and energy consumption. Smart charging system helps them to understand their electricity demand, manage their costs by optimizing the charging time (pricing changing during the day), and limit their power consumption.

In the near future, the electricity needed for EV charging will be produced from renewable sources: solar panels, wind energy, hydroelectric energy, geothermal heat. The smart charging system will easily adapt to all changes, including the important transition to green power. It is an intelligent and flexible technology that became a smart charging strategy to answer users’ needs, electric vehicles, power grid, business owners, and our environment.

BENEFITS OF SMART CHARGING:

Fast charging.
Safe charging.
Smart EV charging is an intelligent back-end solution that collects real-time data from connected charging devices and charging events to the charging point owner.
Charging stations connected to the cloud can share various signals: energy production, local electricity consumption, energy demand, and charging vehicles.
Easy access to EV chargers location through a mobile app with a reservation possibility.
Remote monitoring for all EV chargers.
Charging time optimization.
Electricity consumption control.
Payments and billing automatization.
Grid stability.
Effortless features management (adding, removing, changing).
Easy updates of existing charging stations.

2. V2G (electric vehicle to grid)

V2G stands for “vehicle-to-grid” and is a technology that enables energy to be given back to the power grid from an electric car’s battery. It can be charged and discharged with vehicle-to-grid technology based on various indicators — such as energy production or consumption nearby.

V2X means vehicle-to-something like vehicle-to-home (V2H), vehicle-to-building (V2B), or vehicle-to-grid (V2G). Whether you want to use electricity from an EV battery to power your home or build electrical loads, there are different abbreviations you can use.

The main thought behind vehicle-to-grid is like regular smart charging. Smart charging, sometimes called a V1G charging, provides control over EV charging. At the same time, vehicle-to-grid allows the energy from the vehicle to be fed back to the grid to balance power production and consumption.

Vehicle to grid is a game-changing software innovation that, along with smart charging, will shape the future energy system based on renewable sources.

BENEFITS OF V2G:

Helps to balance electricity demand and the power grid on a larger scale. It will become crucial when the amount of renewable energy in the grid increases.
Enable electric vehicle charging anywhere, regardless of the surroundings, location, or premise.

3. OCPP compliant charging stations

OCPP stands for Open Charge Point Protocol, and it is an initiative fronted by the Open Charge Alliance (OCA). Every EV charging platform has to implement the OCPP protocol to anticipate future e-mobility market requirements and change electric vehicle (EVs) owners’ demand. This innovative technology ensures independent communication between charging points and any charging network management platform. It brings back the control of selecting the network or managing the connection to charging stations ( business owners are not dependent on one provider). OCPP accelerator ensures control over charging station availability ( opening or blocking certain charging point at any time) and enables billing automation (RFID payment).

BENEFITS OF OCPP ACCELERATOR:

Switching hardware is no longer connected to data loss or weakening the connection between networks.
Stations are communicating with the central system easily.
The owner isn’t locked with one service provider because all chargers (same network) can function together.
Changing hardware with outdated software is no longer an issue. With OCPP protocols, any software can be used with any EVSE.
Control over the whole network through one platform
Billing automation
Personal use: the ability to control a particular unit through a network and connecting to a local utility if they have an EV program.

4. EV charging as eRoaming service

The Open InterCharge Protocol (OICP) or Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI) connects thousands of businesses in various countries through API, saving time and money while increasing reliability and security through electric vehicle charging interoperability. It supports connections between service providers (smart charging) and charge point operators. This accelerator may change the future of the e-mobility industry by unifying e-mobility parties. It allows EV drivers to easily recharge at any charging station from the intercharge network, regardless of the EV charging contract they own. The main objective of this solution is to provide transparent information to consumers about charging locations and prices by use of the open, international service.

BENEFITS OF OICP PROTOCOL:

Stable, quick access to hundreds of new e-mobility partners and operators negotiation-free.
The worldwide system, eRoaming, has no geographical limitations.
Open eRoaming network for smooth, smart charging experience with no geographical limitations.
Freedom of traveling for electric vehicle owners.

Digital transformation powers the future of electric vehicles.

The E-mobility industry is growing very quickly. Business owners face hard decisions like choosing the proper EVSE management system or hardware providers, while government regulations are changing monthly and are not unified around the world. That is why only reliable and scalable software may secure their investments. Solutions like smart charging, Vehicle-to-grid, or OCPP protocol help make all hardware more flexible and transformative. Technology charged up this industry growth in the past and will definitely power the coming energy transformation.

Interested in seamless implementation of EVSE management system or OCPP protocol integration? Meet Andrzej Szymczak, who help you to choose the best solution for your business!