A brand new research did a deep dive into EV charger-reported uptime vs. precise uptime, how charger reliability varies, and the right way to enhance it – right here’s what was discovered.
EV charger-reported uptime vs. precise uptime
Los Angeles-based EV provide gear (EVSE) O&M service supplier ChargerHelp examined what’s inflicting reliability points for EV public charging infrastructure. The findings are in a brand new report, “ChargerHelp Annual Reliability Report: The State of EV Charging and the Driver Expertise,” which was reviewed and endorsed by Professor Gil Tal, director of the Electrical Automobile Analysis Middle at UC Davis.
ChargerHelp collected public EV charging infrastructure information from its NEVI evaluation and its direct EVSE O&M expertise; third-party information from Paren; and public information from the US Division of Power’s Different Fuels Information Middle database. In complete, the report analyzed greater than 19 million particular person information factors.
The report explored three interrelated classes: the discrepancy between reported uptime and true uptime; how reliability varies by EV charging infrastructure’s age, state, and community; and what drives downtime and what it takes to enhance uptime.
The research’s 6 main findings
The research’s evaluation revealed six main findings:
True uptime is usually decrease than reported uptime. “True uptime” is when an EV driver is making an attempt to cost their EV on a port vs. a charging station or a community’s self-reported standing through open cost level protocol, app, or software program API. The evaluation discovered that software program persistently overestimates station uptime, point-in-time standing, and the power to efficiently cost an EV.
Software program inaccuracy compounds reliability shortcomings, lowering driver confidence. Software program inaccuracies and charging station standing overestimations — coupled with failed costs at stations that supposedly work — negatively impacted the EV charging expertise at greater than 26% of stations analyzed.
Older EV charging stations usually tend to be down. There’s a optimistic correlation between EVSE infrastructure age and charges of down stations. Plus, states with an extended historical past of EV charging infrastructure buildout have been additionally extra more likely to have larger percentages of down stations.
Charging reliability varies dramatically by community. The research checked out 20 charging community operators. Some have a close to flawless file; others persistently expertise 10-20% of stations down at any given cut-off date. Solely 4 networks account for simply over 25% of ports throughout the US, but account for greater than 75% of all down ports.
Downtime and failed cost periods causes are multifaceted, however sure issues dominate. Charging stations had myriad kinds of observable indicators of station injury and issues, starting from cable and connector points to cupboard and display screen injury. Part failure or injury was the most typical inner symptom discovered, adopted by communications and/or software program failures. Collectively they account for greater than two-thirds of signs. Wanting deeper at down stations solely, the cost system situation had a robust optimistic correlation with working vs. down stations.
Addressing “downside” stations can alleviate a disproportionate burden on operations and upkeep. A small variety of “downside stations” required 4 or extra work orders to diagnose and resolve points, putting a burden on O&M assets and dragging down station and community uptime and reliability metrics. Throughout the second half of 2023, practically half of DC quick charging stations skilled not less than one vital outage, outlined as a full, steady week of downtime. Nevertheless, 2% of stations skilled 4 or extra outages — a cumulative month of downtime within the span of a six-month interval. Worse, 10% of stations skilled prolonged outage durations lasting 6-9+ weeks.
5 beneficial options
The research provides 5 suggestions to enhance EV charger infrastructure reliability, enhance uptime, and enhance the charging expertise for EV drivers:
- Guarantee information accessibility
- Standardize information reporting protocols so uptime may be successfully measured
- Allocate O&M-specific funding to keep up and renew EV charging infrastructure
- Implement complete guarantee protection paired with standardized troubleshooting protocols
- Promote industry-wide main practices whereas increasing technician coaching and certification
Electrek’s Take
I spoke with Professor Gil Tal about ChargerHelp’s research, and he mentioned a standout discovering was that there’s an enormous hole between what EV charging corporations report, and what EV drivers see. He identified the on-the-ground downside of there being a big scarcity of EV technicians that always must cowl giant geographical areas, and that slows down restore time. Tal asserted, “If the [federal] NEVI Program holds [EV charging companies’] ft to the hearth, then they’ll rent [an EV O&M] contractor that lives within the space.”
Tal supplied an answer for fixing the true vs. reported uptime downside: “Set up an entire lot extra chargers.” If there are 100 chargers and 10 are down, versus 4 chargers and two are down, then the proportion isn’t actually relevant for EV drivers – “it’s a recreation of numbers.”
Tal and I agreed that public EV charger reliability is a problem, and to be able to standardize the which means of “uptime,” we want regulation to set an industry-wide, standardized definition of uptime, and long-term enterprise fashions must mirror that.
Tell us your ideas about EV charger-reported uptime vs. precise uptime within the feedback under.
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