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Power managment between firmware versions 1.x and 2.x onwards is not compatible. |
The linear INCH power management algorithm will always try to find the optimal charging current for an individual vehicle that is currently charging in a cluster while trying to maximally utilize all the available phases during charging.
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Figure 2 demonstrates what happens when a single-phase vehicle connects to the cluster (in addition to the green vehicle). As we can see, the single-phase (orange) vehicle can only charge on one of the three phases. However, since electric vehicles can only charge with the same electric current on all phases on which they are charging, the reduced available current for a three-phase vehicle on one of the phases to e.g. 6 A (Figure 2) will result in the fact that the vehicle will only be able to charge with 6 A on all three phases. Therefore, some electrical current on phases 2 and 3 will stay unused.
In addition to the number of phases a vehicle is able to charge on, the cluster power management algorithm takes into account the departure times of the vehicles in order to determine the charging priorities. The closer the vehicle's departure time, the higher the charging current the vehicle will be allowed to charge with. If a time of departure is not determined by the user of the vehicle, the power management algorithm will predict a departure time in 6 hours from the beginning of the charging session by default.
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The following examples will help to better understand the behaviour of cluster power management in different situations.
Scenario 1 : A single-phase vehicle and a three-phase vehicle with different departure times and enough time to full charge
Let's say a green vehicle (3-phase) connects to the charging cluster and begins to charge. The more power the vehicle can charge with, the shorter the total charging time of the vehicle will be. In our case, the vehicle may charge with up to 32 A per phase, as this is the limit of the charger (Figure 3). We assume that the battery capacity of the green type of the vehicle has not been defined in the system, which means the cluster will assume that the battery capacity of the green vehicle is 100 kWh, and that the battery is empty. Therefore, the cluster will predict 100 kWh for charging the green vehicle and will start charging immediately.
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Note: a three-phase vehicle always has charging priority over a single- or two-phase vehicle. This is due to its ability to maximize the power consumption of the charging cluster, as three-phase vehicles are able to draw up to 3 x 32 A of electric current from the grid in comparison to single- or two-phase vehicles which are only able to draw up to 1 x 32 A (single-phase) or 2 x 32 A (two-phase). Likewise, vehicles charging on two phases will always have a charging priority over single-phase vehicles. |
Scenario 2: Two three-phase vehicles with different departure times (priority charging)
A three-phase green vehicle is charging at the charging cluster, same as in the beginning of Scenario 1 (see Scenario 1 and Figure 3).
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However, as both vehicles can charge on all three phases simultaneously, departure times of both vehicles are approaching but the red vehicle has been receiving the power faster than the green vehicle, both vehicles will eventually reach an equal charging priority, which means that the charging current between them will split equally until either of the vehicles is fully charged or disconnected from the charger.
Scenario 3: A single-phase vehicle and a three-phase vehicle with different departure times, not planning for full charge
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A green vehicle (three-phase) is charging on one of the chargers in the charging cluster. The cluster assumes that the vehicle has a battery capacity of 100 kWh and that the battery is empty. The vehicle can charge with 32 A per phase (3 x 32 A) for the entire duration of the charging session. Time until the set departure of the vehicle is shorter than the time in which the vehicle would be able to fully charge in case its battery is truly empty (Figure 6). If owner of the green vehicle does not unplug the vehicle from the charger, the vehicle will keep charging until unplugged or until fully charged.
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