A new smart energy management system has been launched by Rolec EV to help balance loads on the grid when charging EVs. EV GridSMART Online is able to work at local, regional, and national levels, and looks to tackle increased demand because of rising plug-in vehicle sales.
Using a cloud-based back office, charge points from Rolec EV can monitor electrical demand from the car and home. This information is then combined with local infrastructure knowledge – such as supply, network capacity etc – and EV GridSMART Online can determine whether to temporarily decrease the EV’s electricity supply.
Should the supply be restricted, the system will continue to monitor demand on the grid to restore maximum charging power when able to do do so.
There have been a number of studies into the country’s electrical infrastructure and increased demand upon it, with projects involving EVs producing significant findings. The current infrastructure is largely – but not wholely – capable of supporting medium-scale EV uptake without significant hardware investment.
However, this is in terms of overall capacity, and smart energy use is the only way to delay the need for expensive infrastructure upgrades. Systems like Rolec EV’s aim to provide some of the solution.
Rolec Managing Director Kieron Alsop said: “With record EV sales throughout the UK, as well as legislative changes to encourage EV uptake, the need to support the country’s electrical infrastructure has taken on a new urgency.
“The immediate electrical demands created every month by the connection of thousands of new EVs onto the current national electrical infrastructure is dramatically challenging its ability to cope. EV GridSMART Online has been designed to work alongside the national grid to intelligently monitor the electrical demand of both the home and its EV.
“As well as monitoring, managing, and balancing the electrical loads between traditional demands and EV, EV GridSMART Online can also be used to call in (where appropriate) supplementary, or even green, electricity supplies from sources such as wind farms, solar fields, wave generation, battery storage and similar.”
