Power Sharing
Power Sharing can be enabled at multiple levels and can manage all configured power constraints simultaneously. Use power sharing when you want to specify a single overall (aggregate) limit for a group of stations. ChargePoint Power Management software will ensure that the sum of the power flowing through all the ports never exceeds the limit you specify.
Power Sharing is in controlled release. If you would like to use this feature, please contact Customer Support to enable it.
For example, 10 dual-port stations delivering 7.2 kW to each vehicle would have a maximum power of 20 x 7.2 kW = 144 kW when fully occupied and charging at full speed. With power sharing, you can specify a limit of 72 kW, so ChargePoint would ensure that the total power never exceeds 72 kW.
In this example, if 10 vehicles were plugged in, they would all be allowed to draw a full 7.2 kW each, but if an 11th vehicle plugged in, ChargePoint would reduce the power to the stations to make sure the total does not exceed 72 kW.
Power sharing includes the following levels:
|
Power Sharing Level |
Description |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Circuit
(Power managed at the Breaker level) |
Limiting the maximum amperage that a group of ports can use based on the size of the upstream breaker. |
Stations are sharing a circuit that has a 40 A breaker, so ChargePoint ensures that the aggregate draw does not exceed 32 A. |
|
Panel
(Power managed at the Panel level) |
Limiting the maximum amperage that a group of ports can use based on the available panel capacity for EV charging. |
200 A single-phase panels ordinarily allow only five 32 A charging stations to be installed, but Panel Sharing software can be used to allow fifteen charging stations, without upgrading the service to the panel. |
|
Site
(Power managed at the Transformer level) |
Limiting the maximum power of a group of ports served by one transformer (or any other form of grouping). |
With or without a physical constraint (on the total power available to a site) but, the customer wants to avoid all chargers running at full speed during certain times of day to prevent costly demand charges. |
After selecting your power sharing level, choose one of the following fairness algorithms:
|
Policy |
Description |
|
Equal Charge |
Each active session is provided with an equal percentage of the available power limit. |
|
First Come, First Served Policy (FCFS) |
Cars get charged based on when they arrive. When a vehicle becomes fully charged, the available power moves to the next in the queue. |
A Round Robin policy is forced on the Equal Charge policy when the available amperage is not enough to equally charge cars connected to all the stations. When this happens, charging is cycled through a set of vehicles, skipping those that are fully charged.
To watch videos of these fairness algorithms, see ChargePoint’s Charge More EVs with PowerManagement blog.
To specify a limit on each charging port individually, use the Demand Response feature.
