[greenclub] Notes from Meeting about Smart Charging

[Klemm, Roger W (348E)]

All -

I’ve uploaded the presentation materials from yesterday’s talk from the Caltech Adaptive Charging Network folks to the Green Club presentation materials page, so for those of you with a JPL login, visit https://gateway.jpl.nasa.gov/communities/greenclub/Presentation%20Materials/Caltech-ACN-JPL.pdf?Web=1

If you aren’t able to access the file this way, let me know and I’ll email it to you separately. 

The main points I got from the discussion were:

- The Adaptive Charging Network (ACN) system is designed to constrain peak power consumption across the block of installed chargers; this enables both deployment of more chargers, and better integration with the electrical grid (i.e., making EV charging more grid-friendly, eventually in a more dynamic and responsive way). 

- The ACN team is currently fixing ~3 bugs a day. The variety of EV’s is good, some have issues (e.g., turning off after a while if the connected L2 doesn’t have power), so it’s good to have many different people using the system.

- The JPL installation is great, as it’s fully utilized (Caltech also has constrained parking situation, and was unwilling to dedicate these spots to EV charging only). 

- The ACN team needs to play with demand response algorithms, so we need to not count on always getting full L2 power

- The ACN team appreciates having a dynamic, passionate, and involved user community

- The ACN team would appreciate partnering with people at JPL. Anybody interested?

I’ll include the rest of my notes below. I’ve not done more than a cursory first pass through them, so if they help you, great; if you have questions, please reply just to me and I’ll do my best to fill in the blanks. 

-roger

Additional notes:

Research on Fleet Charging

The 8 stations in the JPL visitor lot cost $40k to install; the next set will be $1k each because they planned ahead and did the trenching in one shot.

Clipper Creek EVSE’s can be throttled in 2 amp steps. Would prefer finer granularity, but that’s better than not being able to throttle at all. 

Want to do more stations here (we’re good guinea pigs!)

Phase 2 of the project (50-100 stations in JPL parking structure) will handle demand response (development and testing of algorithms)

Algorithm limits peak power demand, spreads out load

If no user information (i.e., sign-in), system gives best effort. J1772 protocol doesn’t have any vehicle identification to the charging equipment; DCFC protocols do.

If user supplies information (app is in development), their needs are satisfied more than 90% of the time

CEC grant program $120M allocated for R&D (we all pay on our electric bills)

October is the deadline for grants for tech development for smart charging and renewable integration

Charging equipment is level 2 but output may be limited for various reasons. Looking at solar output (soak up solar peaks in afternoon?), demand response, etc. 

(always) Looking for grant sources. Would JPL be able to partner on this? What do the Caltech people need for support? We offered to help

Perhaps the JPL small business office?

For maintenance, their focus has been to make the stations reliable and cheap. 

From: rwklemm <roger....@jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2016 at 6:23 PM
To: greenclub <gree...@jpl.nasa.gov>, "evgroup.evcharger" <evgroup....@jpl.nasa.gov>
Cc: "Rigdon, Steve A (2823)" <steve.a...@jpl.nasa.gov>, "Sciarrotta, Don G (2823)" <Don.G.Sci...@jpl.nasa.gov>
Subject: Smart Charging Comes to JPL

Green Club and EV Charging folks:

Please join us next Tuesday at 3pm in 321-129 to hear about the Caltech Adaptive Charging System. Professor Steven Low of Caltech, and George Lee, also of Caltech, will talk about the smart electric vehicle charging system they recently installed in the JPL Visitor parking lot, how the system works, what it means for electric vehicle infrastructure energy/demand management, and what might be in the future for JPL. Exciting stuff!

For more information about the installation of this system at Caltech, visit https://www.caltech.edu/news/smart-charging-network-evs-installed-caltech-50567

I’ll plan on putting a webex together on Monday and sending out the information with a reminder email, so you can join the meeting remotely. 

-roger

[Klemm, Roger W (348E)]

And I’d also like to express my sincere thanks to the Caltech folks for coming to talk with us, and to our Facilities folks for enabling installation of the 8-spot test bank in the visitor’s lot on an amazingly short fuse. Kudos to all!