How EcoJoule solutions can tackle local EV charging issues

We published an article to coincide with World EV Day on September 9^th, titled ‘Local Voltage Control is key to EV charging challenge’.

As our lead story explains, we have partnered with Australia-based EcoJoule. We are delighted to have added its industry-leading LV products to our Total Voltage Control portfolio, because we believe they have a vital role to play in tackling voltage and phase imbalance problems at the local community and consumer parts of LV networks (the ‘edge’) – including issues caused by EV charging

As we wrote earlier this month: “We are increasingly being asked to help network operators with over- as well as under-voltage issues. For example, customers may find their home EV chargers trip out where there is a high concentration of rooftop solar panels in the area, causing sudden voltage changes as sunshine levels fluctuate.

“Problems can be particularly acute at the ends of networks, with ageing infrastructure far from primary substations, that was not designed for theincreasingly dynamic changes in supply and demand.”

We believe EcoJoule’s products deliver a lot of the answers to these problems, as part of a whole-system approach to voltage control, in a grid environment which is becoming ever more dynamic by the day.

EcoJoule’s power electronics-based devices can provide voltage regulation capability for LV networks, whilst simultaneously shifting real and reactive power between phases to reduce or even remove imbalances. These devices can be installed on overhead (pole-mounted) and underground (ground-mounted) networks.

Further grid support capability can be provided by integrating the devices with battery storage units, allowing owners to participate in flexibility markets.

Like our SuperTAPP AVCs higher up the network, these new technologies can be connected to operators’ management system to deliver grid-wide voltage control at unprecedented levels.