Electric vehicles and charging stations aspire to offer electric vehicle drivers something that rivals the turnaround times of gas stations.
While charging speed is important, reliability and the ability to receive a final charge are perhaps the more important points that some charging networks seem to have overlooked in the process.
According to a 2023 study, about 20% Efforts to charge public electric vehicles failed. On the other hand, if there is a problem with the running gas pump, it may run a little slower, but usually won’t shut down completely without being able to operate.
A group of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) took that idea to heart with a project. They sought to bring electric vehicle charging closer to the gas station experience—by building resilience around two typical problems at high-power charging stations. And it seems that building in a little more flexibility into station layout and controls may be all that’s needed.
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As ORNL pointed out in an update on its efforts earlier this month, one of the two problems its research team focused on—sudden voltage drops at the station or power fluctuations in the charger—could fixed in a way that doesn’t turn off the charger until it goes for maintenance or a remote reboot.
The solution to one of these, sudden voltage drops, is as easy as a “pass through” algorithm that restores power a few seconds after the power normally comes back on. As they point out, that not only helps the end user but also helps ensure there is no corresponding voltage surge.
Currently, such voltage drops can render chargers useless and maintenance is required to reactivate them when the device is fine.
Inside the charging cabinet, the charger can also stop working due to errors when one of its three power modules has a problem. According to the researchers, looking at the algorithms, it would better serve charge-only customers if the control strategy allowed the other two to compensate somewhat and provide a reduced overall power output. until repaired, instead of shutting down the machine.
You would be more satisfied if you were charged a fee, with an apology a little later than usual, rather than not charged at all, right?
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For greater reliability when leveraging these ideas, the researchers point to a different arrangement than today’s charging stations—with a “layered approach to control and communication” on a The charging station is “like a gas station with multiple pumps.” There, system-wide controllers change device settings based on issues at each charger to maximize performance and uptime.
The federal government is working on it EV charger reliability in building the US infrastructure and through the Charge X consortium, they have focused on several aspects that create a series of technical hurdles, including denormalized error reporting and payment issues.
It’s not surprising that automakers have stepped forward, choosing to create their own networks in some cases—like the upcoming system Ionna competes with superchargers—instead of allying with existing ones. Rivian has even adopted one Classification system for public chargers will be used for its own dynamic route planning.
