WHAT?

Load management is a service built into the eParking system that ensures that charging and heating electric cars is safe and that the maximum electrical capacity or phase-specific current limits of the site are not exceeded. In addition, more advanced load management solutions can be used, for example, to regulate the internal load of the property.

Load management, as its name suggests, monitors and balances the load. In its simplest form, load management ensures that the electricity consumption of the parking lot does not blow the fuse of the parking area or the upper center. This is done by adjusting the charging and heating load: when the number of chargers increases so much that the power limits are exceeded, the system frees up capacity by reducing the charging power.

WHY?

People move around and thus load the grid at different times: someone wants to preheat their car, another goes to work in the afternoon, a third charges their car battery at night. In addition, the load also has different powers due to the different internal chargers in cars. Car chargers are 1-, 2- or 3-phase, and the charging current varies between 6 and 32 amps. A system where everyone could use electricity at the same time with high loads does not make sense, because the electricity connection is priced according to its maximum power. However, if a situation arises where several people want to use electricity at the same time, load management can reduce maximum consumption peaks and shift the load to another time.

People drive an average of about 50 kilometers per day. This corresponds to about 10 kWh of electricity, which means that the same amount of electricity needs to be returned to the car during the average day. It is usually enough for the car to be charged at the end of the working day or when leaving for work in the morning. Load management ensures that there is enough electricity if everyone wants to charge their car at the same time.

Illustrative graphics of eParking load management

With load management:

You save on costs
You improve building safety
Scale consumption as needed
Monitor electricity consumption
You guarantee a balanced energy supply to users
You reduce the need for maintenance

HOW?

In eParking, load management is available at three different levels:

Level 0 load management monitors plug-specific current limits and ensures that the charging power does not exceed the maximum allowed for each plug individually.

Level 1 load management ensures that the maximum current values of the charging and heating equipment are not exceeded. Nor does their combined power exceed the phase and group-specific fuse values. In practice, level 1 load management can monitor the heating and charging consumption of an entire parking lot.

2-level load management is the latest and most modern solution. In this solution, a meter is also brought to the main center of the property, which communicates with the charging equipment. In practice, 2-level load management can adjust the maximum power consumed by the charging equipment according to the consumption of the property: if the property has other high consumption, capacity can be released from the charging side for this dynamically and in real time. For example, on a warm summer day, the power of the charging equipment can be reduced so that there is enough capacity to maintain the air conditioning of the office building.

The attached video describes in more detail how the different load management levels work.

Load management solutions are an important part of a safe and equally functioning charging system and efficient electrical design of the property. eParking is the only system on the market that monitors the electricity consumption of the entire property in stages, from the individual charging socket to the main center.

Ask more and learn about our technology at www.etolppa.fi !