The Benefits of Choosing Dynamic Power for Public EV Charging Sites
The EV charging market has come a long way in recent years. Until recently, it was common to see a public charging site equipped with a single charger providing a constant stream of power to one vehicle at a time. If multiple chargers were available at a charging site, all would offer any EV the same amount of power, regardless the type of vehicle or the amount of charge required.
Once the status quo, this method of static charging is now simply unsustainable as EV adoption continues to increase. Globally, over 16.5 million electric vehicles were on the road in 2021, tripling the number seen just three years prior. To build charging infrastructure for an electrified future, we need efficient chargers, which means we need to optimize power distribution. That’s why we incorporate dynamic power in all our offerings at Kempower.
Why dynamic power?
With a traditional static charging system, power is split evenly but indiscriminately between EVs, meaning charging time is not optimized, and installed DC power is not fully utilized. This not only lengthens charging times for drivers but creates additional costs for charging point operators (CPOs) who have to pay for idle power.
On the other hand, with dynamic power management, power is distributed according to need. The intelligent distribution system optimizes power allocation according to vehicle charging curvesand minimizes charging times. By enabling lower power grid connections and optimizing the use of DC power investment, it is also highly cost-efficient for CPOs. Meanwhile, the end-user charging experience stays optimal. The result is a more beneficial charging experience for everyone.
Putting dynamic power at the heart of our solutions
Our dynamic and adaptive power distribution solution is one of the most unique features of Kempower products. We believe that dynamic power charging is so important that we’ve built it into all our satellite products, on top of additional management features to ensure customers get the most out of our dynamic power feature.
Kempower satellite system consists of a centralized power unit which offers up to 600kW DC power, which can be dynamically distributed between as many as eight charging outputs via our satellites with 25 kW granularity. Within each charging power unit are up to three cabinets, each accommodating up to four power modules providing 50 – 200 kW. Altogether, Kempower Satellite charging system can dynamically distribute power between up to 12 charging points.
We know charging demand will continue growing, so we offer many charging points per system. We also allow our customers to expand their charging offering by starting small and adding more satellites. This is a future-proofing measure as we want to meet our customers’ current and future needs. We don’t want customers to overinvest initially – we encourage them to add more cabinets as capacity increases. Having laid the groundwork, such as installing cables, expanding is made easy thanks to the scalability of our technology.
Customers can also be assured that Kempower’s dynamic power system can grow with the market without needing to be replaced. For example, we recently introduced our adaptive voltage feature to ensure all vehicles, no matter their nominal battery voltage, remain compatible with our chargers. This is built into all of our new chargers, while any existing Kempower charging system can be retrofitted with adaptive voltage charging as part of an upgrade package.
Making dynamic charging work for you
We offer a few different power distribution options so that every customer can choose the best option for their situation. Customers can also easily change between modes if their priorities change.
The most common option is democratic mode, where power is distributed evenly between all charging points in use, depending on how many kilowatts are available overall. This option works best for long charging times where time is not an issue.
However, when time is tight, arrival priority mode may be preferable. In this mode, the EVs that arrived first is always given the most charging power, as requested by the vehicle. Once the EV at the front of the queue is finished charging, the freed capacity is shared with the remaining cars and the highest charging power is given to the next EV in the queue. This option works best when EVs are more likely to maintain shorter charging times, such as at rest stops.
These two modes make up most of the modes requested by our customers. However, we can tailor our dynamic power distribution to almost any case. For example, a customer may ask that a particular charging point always provides the highest power output. Our customers decide how they want to take advantage of our dynamic power distribution feature. We are constantly developing new solutions with our customers to accommodate their needs.
Another way we help our customers make the most of dynamic power charging and prepare for the future is by offering charging station capacity planning. This planning tool is designed to help Kempower’s customers decide how much power they should install. Our capacity planning tool helps customers optimally plan investments by showing how Kempower’s dynamic power solutions will serve their current capacity. We also offer follow-up tools for those already operating our chargers to show how adding more power could benefit their charging hub from revenue and user experience point of view.
Furthermore, our Kempower ChargEye remote monitoring system allows CPOs to monitor their network performance using measurements such as average queue length and time between charging sessions. This helps CPOs make an informed decision about when to upgrade existing equipment or purchase new charging points. Our tools help our customers understand end-user behavior better so they can continually meet their own customers’ needs.
Choosing dynamic charging for an electrified future
The benefits of dynamic charging to EV drivers and CPOs are considerable, and the greater efficiency it unlocks for charging stations makes it the perfect solution for an electrified future. That’s why we’ve built Kempower charging solutions with dynamic charging in mind. We’re ready to work with our customers to continue developing our dynamic charging feature for a growing EV market and keep our customers ahead of the curve.