Managed EV Charging Stations
Leticia Santana
Leticia is a graduate of the University of Toronto, having studied Mathematics, Computer Science and European studies. She is interested in exploring the many ways technology can help improve and innovate diverse fields. She believes that blockchain technology is a powerful tool which expands the range of possibilities for collaboration by digitizing one of the core purposes of so many our systems-trust. She is excited to be part of a team working to deliver on this promise at Hygge and is moreover thrilled at the opportunity to do so in service of a mission as critical as helping build clean energy communities.
Whatever lingering doubts there may still be that electric vehicles (EVs) are the cars of the future, they are quickly vanishing. Over the next few years, the number of electric vehicles offered by manufacturers is set to snowball. Industry heavy-hitters like General Motors, Nissan, Ford, Volkswagen and luxury brands such as Tesla, Audi, Porsche, Jaguar, BMW have been investing millions into the design and development of electric cars. By 2040, EVs sales are expected to be more than half of new car sales and 33% of the global car fleet. The new emissions regulations coming fully into effect by the end of 2021 in Europe and China partly explain why EV-model launches have increased significantly. Under these regulations, automakers face potential penalties of up to several billion euros for their CO2 emissions. To keep emissions low, manufacturers are opting for adding EVs to their fleet.
“By 2040, EVs sales are expected to be more than half of new car sales and 33% of the global car fleet.”
One of the last barriers to EV adoption cited by potential buyers is anxiety over long-distance travel. With the exception of Tesla’s model S, which can travel a whopping 402 miles on a single charge, most EVs can only travel somewhere between 200 and 300 miles per charge. While this is more than enough distance to cover the 41 miles the average American travels daily, buyers nonetheless want to know that they will be able to travel longer distances without worrying about getting stranded part way with no way to charge their cars. In most countries, charging infrastructure for EV still has a long way to go before it can address such concerns. In the US, for example, there are approximately 165,000 gas stations but only roughly 22,000 EV charging point stations – that’s 8 gas stations for every EV charging point station! Bolstering the EV charging infrastructure should be a priority for countries aiming to increase the number of EVs on their roads. California’s goal is to build 250,000 charging stations by 2050. Likewise, Germany is targeting 1 million by 2030. China is already reporting as many as 1000 charging stations built per day.
With such bright forecasts, it is not surprising that investment in charging technology is growing. However, as charging stations are expensive to produce and charging technologies are developing fast, there are still lingering concerns over the long-term profitability of investing in this field. Similarly, charging station owners are worried about purchasing the wrong technology and being left with depreciated assets as a result. These fears are grounded in bad precedents in the industry. For example, in 2013, when ECOtality – a provider of electric transportation and storage technologies, and owner of the Blink charging network – declared bankruptcy, business owners were temporarily left without charging points for potential EV drivers to use.
“. . . As charging stations are expensive to produce and charging technologies are developing fast, there are still lingering concerns over the long-term profitability of investing in this field. Similarly, charging station owners are worried about purchasing the wrong technology and being left with depreciated assets as a result.”
Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP):
One way to reduce this risk is to adopt open protocol platforms. The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is a protocol for communication between EV charging stations and central back-office systems. OCPP is an international open standard which is available for free and is supported by many large players in the EV industry such as utilities, charging station manufacturers, EV charging station operators, and back-office software suppliers. Open platforms allow charging station operators to choose what service provider they want to use with their charging hardware. Closed or proprietary platforms bind users to the original hardware manufacturer. This is comparable to the way most phones are locked to their manufacturer’s operating system (OS). While Apple may benefit from not allowing users to use the android operating system, iPhone owners are limited in their ability to choose what OS they want on their phones. Vendor-dependent platforms limit the flexibility of the hardware and increase the risk that operators will lose on their investments. While some hardware providers are pushing for closed platforms, most agree that OCPP is the best option for the health of the charging infrastructure as a whole.
“Vendor-dependent platforms limit the flexibility of the hardware and increase the risk that operators will lose on their investments.”
There are a number of advantages in adopting OCPP. The first is that the charging station owners are far less likely to be stranded with useless assets. In fact, should the company who produced the charging hardware fail, the operator is free to continue using the hardware by moving to another service provider. Additionally, giving operators the ability to browse for service providers creates a competitive market for their business, which likely leads to reduced costs and increased efficiency. Lastly, charging stations operating under OCPP have at their disposal mechanisms for publishing their data with grid management software, allowing for coordination capabilities between the grid and the charging stations. This coordination can go a long way toward mitigating grid instability resulting from adding EV charging loads.
“. . . charging station owners are far less likely to be stranded with useless assets . . . leads to reduced costs and increased efficiency . . . can go a long way toward mitigating grid instability resulting from adding EV charging loads.”
As charging infrastructure grows to accommodate the EVs on the road, charging station owners who seek to mitigate risks should ensure that the platform they adopt uses OCPP. Adopting OCPP technology reduces service costs for station owners by incentivizing competition among service providers, reduces their risk of getting stranded with useless assets and facilitates coordination with grid-management systems. With numerous advantages over closed platforms, OCPP is the future-proof approach to EV charging points.
Leticia Santana
Leticia is a graduate of the University of Toronto, having studied Mathematics, Computer Science and European studies. She is interested in exploring the many ways technology can help improve and innovate diverse fields. She believes that blockchain technology is a powerful tool which expands the range of possibilities for collaboration by digitizing one of the core purposes of so many our systems-trust. She is excited to be part of a team working to deliver on this promise at Hygge and is moreover thrilled at the opportunity to do so in service of a mission as critical as helping build clean energy communities.
