Integration of EV Charging Infrastructure – ‘Use Case’ Scenarios
As companies in the Bay area expand their EV charging infrastructural deployments, they are looking to integrate this infrastructure with Energy Management and Demand Response capabilities.
Why This Matters
The primary benefit of a well-defined integration strategy for EV charging infrastructure is to reduce associated energy and demand charges for the hosting organization. It helps organizations effectively handle the most typical energy-related use cases they can expect to encounter, and determine how to best leverage an existing ecosystem of service providers. Also, it helps to identify and expose missing links where work still needs to be done.
Presented below are typical energy management ‘use cases’ for hosting organizations deploying and integrating EV charging infrastructure.
Scenario 1: Demand Response Scenario with Cloud-Based EVSE Control
This EV Infrastructure energy management use case involves a cloud-based EV charging network service provider. This enables EV charging infrastructure to react in apredictable/desired fashion when a DR event is called.
The EVSE service provider is integrated electronically with the utility to receive DR event signals, and then regulates charging at the hosting organization’s Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) according to DR rules pre-established by the host organization.
As shown above, the utility informs the cloud-based charging network about current demand related events on the grid. In response, the cloud-based service provider issues or fine tunes EV charging instructions via its cloud-based EVSE controller interface to charging stations, thus helping reduce the load for the building and addressing demand response for the grid. The charging network also keeps track of the vehicle status (for example, how much it is charged or how long it has been idle) and can apply local charging rules to further optimize the usage of electricity for the building and utility.
In this scenario the overall EV charging is controlled and managed by the third party charging network, which typically also manages authentication, notification and payment scenarios.
Scenario 2: Energy Management Scenario with Cloud-Based EVSE Control
This EV Infrastructure energy management use case describes how an office building or campus with an Energy Management System (EMS) can be integrated with EV charging infrastructure via a cloud-based EVSE control network.
As shown above, the building’s EMS directly interacts with the cloud-based EVSE controller. The EMS monitors overall energy use for the building or site (including EV charging). Based on the timing and cost of energy use (e.g. demand peaks, peak periods) the EMS sends signals to the cloud-based EVSE controller, to regulate EV charging load at the site according to specific charging instructions (e.g. reduce demand by a specified amount/time period). The EMS is also interfaced with the utility, thereby able to provide similar signals to the cloud-based EVSE when DR events are called by the utility.
Scenario 3: Energy Management Scenario with local EVSE Control
This scenario describes the use case for local controllers at one or multiple buildings on a campus site, to control EV charging and balance overall load.
The local controllers typically include a network connection with the building or campus for data, as well as connections for physical control of electric circuit(s). The building/campus Energy Management System interacts with the Utility and its DR/DM interface to receive demand response requirements as set by the utility, or by tracking local energy use, determines that EV load reduction is necessary. It then signals the local load controller to dial EV charging circuit capacity up or down, depending on what the building needs.
