Technical News Issue #80 | Spring 2018 | Page 6

NHP Technical News For this reason, systems of this nature commonly offer the capability to perform load management as well. In cases where a cloud-based billing and authentication system is being used, primary load management from that system, backed up by an electrical load management system designed to open contactors at a slightly higher threshold in the event of loss of communications or any other failure on the part of the cloud- based system, is considered by NHP to be acceptable practice. Pricing for this style of cloud-based software management solution in the Australian market (at the time of writing) is on the order of $350- $400 per year per EV charging station, handled as a subscription/contract service. Full power available (e.g. 4 AM) 32A 32A 32A 32A Limited power available (e.g. 3 PM) 25A Priority spot Figure 2 15A Priority spot 15A 15A Low power available (e.g. 5-7 PM) 5A WHAT METHODS ARE AVAILABLE TO PROVIDE BILLING FOR EV CHARGING No Billing Systems/Indirect Billing The next question after ‘how do we supply the power?’ is typically ‘who pays?’ There are many examples of cases where no special arrangements need to be made for billing, some of the more common ones are given below. In a typical Australian household, the EV charger in the garage or carport can be supplied from the load centre in the house, downstream of the household utility meter. This means that the householder will simply see the cost of the electricity used to top up the battery in their car overnight in their usual electricity bill. So, no special arrangements for billing are necessary. It is becoming more common in retail locations around the world to provide AC EV charging in customer car parks at no direct cost to the driver, to attract the electric vehicle owner to the shopping centre in the first place, and to then increase the amount of time the driver spends in the shopping centre. No special arrangements for billing are necessary in this case either; the assumption is that the cost of electricity to the site operator will be greatly outweighed by the additional spend in store. 6 15A 5A 5A