As electric vehicles continue to grow in popularity, the demand for efficient and reliable charging solutions has become more pressing than ever. Managing the increased power load from multiple charging points without compromising the electrical infrastructure can be a significant challenge. This is where dynamic load balancing comes into play. In this blog, we will explore how this innovative technology is revolutionizing EV charging, ensuring that both individual users and businesses can enjoy seamless and safe charging experiences. Discover the key principles, types, and benefits of dynamic load balancing and learn how it can enhance the efficiency and reliability of your EV charging network.
What is EV Load Balancing?
Now, start with what it is. EV Load Balancing ensures efficient and safe charging by dynamically adjusting the power output based on the available energy infrastructure capacity.
The aim of load balancing is to either maximize the power output of a single charging point or to install as many charging points as possible, without overloading the power distribution system. Overloading can lead to power outages during charging, which can be both inconvenient and potentially hazardous. Load balancing mitigates this risk by evenly distributing the available power across all charging points, facilitating a safe and efficient charging process for electric vehicles.
Types of Load Balancing
According to specific working principles, load balancing can be divided into two types, static and dynamic. The static type is realized through a simple output power setting, while the dynamic one is via flexible algorithm control based on certain signal feedback.
Static Load Balancing
Static Load Balancing is a configuration in which each charger at a site has a predetermined, “fixed” load. This means that the power distribution to each charger remains constant, regardless of the overall power demand or availability.
To illustrate the concept of Static Load Balancing, consider this example: Suppose your home has a total distribution capacity of 20kW. The combined power consumption of your existing home appliances is 15kW, and your car requires an additional 7kW for charging. In this scenario, the total power demand (22kW) exceeds the available capacity (20kW). This imbalance would trigger the circuit breaker, resulting in a power outage.
Dynamic Load Balancing
Dynamic Load Balancing constantly monitors changes in energy usage on a circuit and automatically allocates available capacity to different appliances. This technique balances energy usage and adjusts the charging output for electric vehicles in response to changes in the electrical load.
Let’s revisit the previous example, but this time with Dynamic Load Balancing in place. In this scenario, the power required for charging your car dynamically adjusts to the available capacity. Instead of demanding a fixed 7kW, the car’s charging power reduces to 4kW due to Dynamic Load Balancing. This adjustment brings the total power consumption down to less than 20kW, allowing all devices to operate normally without causing a power outage.
How Does Dynamic Load Balancing Work?
Charging Station Monitoring
The system constantly monitors the status of charging stations in the network, including factors like charging power, battery state-of-charge, and available capacity.
Resource Allocation
Based on the monitoring data, the system dynamically allocates charging power to available charging stations to ensure that each station is balanced and not overloaded.
Adaptive Adjustments
If a charging station fails or becomes overloaded, the system automatically redirects charging power to other available stations to ensure high availability and efficient resource utilization.
Load Balancing Algorithms
The system uses specialized algorithms for distributing charging power, such as load-based allocation and priority-based allocation. These algorithms help ensure that charging power is distributed fairly and efficiently across the available charging stations, based on the specific requirements of the EV charging network.
How Does Dynamic Load Balancing Benefit Your Business?
No Overloading
Dynamic load balancing can automatically adapt energy use from your charger or appliance to ensure it never exceeds a safe maximum and doesn’t overload your home or business’s electrical circuit.
Efficiency
Dynamic load balancing distributes requests across the network, preventing server overload and increasing response time by using multiple servers to process many requests simultaneously.
Flexibility
Servers can be added and removed from server groups as needed, enabling seamless scalability and accommodating growing user bases without causing service disruptions.
Dynamic load balancing improves the overall performance and reliability of applications by ensuring that resources are used efficiently and that there is no single point of failure. It can also help to scale applications on demand and provide high availability and fault tolerance to handle spikes in traffic or server failures.
Avoid Power Overload
Dynamic load balancing constantly monitors changes in energy use on your circuit and automatically allocates the available capacity to different appliances. It balances the energy used and adjusts the output in response to changes in electricity load. This feature is particularly useful for businesses that use high-energy applications, such as electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.
Charging Management
The Evchargo cloud platform can be used for network-based solutions for charge point management. The scalable software can optimize charge point operation, improve availability, and enable accurate charging billing through the OCPP protocol. A rule-based load management system can distribute available connection loads to all charge points, enabling on-demand charging for EVs and optimizing charging capacity operation and overload protection for building facilities.
