WattEV Maximizes Charger Uptime at America's Largest EV Truck Site
WattEV is a leading Truck-as-a-Service and EV charging infrastructure provider for logistic companies. Since 2022, WattEV has worked with Ampcontrol to launch the first EV charging hub in the Port of Long Beach, the largest port in the U.S. WattEV uses Ampcontrol to ensure a high charger uptime and a seamless driver experience. The site opened in May 2023, and WattEV will open several similar sites soon.
Over the past few years, electric trucking fleets have been on the rise with many leading middle-mile logistics providers and the Port of Long Beach. The California-based company, WattEV, uses business and technological innovation to provide fleet operators with the lowest total cost of ownership. It serves as a critical enabler to reduce CO2 emissions in the country. WattEV uses Ampcontrol's charging management software and 24/7/365 monitoring support to ensure the highest availability for WattEV’s trucking partners.
Using Ampcontrol’s dashboard, WattEV can monitor the charging activities, access all data points in real time, and remotely control charging equipment. Ampcontrol’s team worked closely with WattEV and other partners during the commissioning process and the ramp-up of the 24/7 support. Since June 2023, Port of Long Beach has had its first electric trucks provided by WattEV’s Charging-as-a-Service platform.
WattEV uses Ampcontrol’s remote monitoring and help desk service. Ampcontrol’s global team responds to driver requests and auto-error detections.
Ampcontrol’s auto-error detection sends notifications to the operators via text message, pager, or email. This minimizes active dashboard monitoring times.
Ampcontrol’s software and API have had zero downtime or critical errors since the launch. This provides reliable information from the charger hardware and increases its availability.
Challenges
WattEV is aiming for a 24/7 operation of its charging hub. Trucks often come back in the early morning hours and must be fully charged by the morning. Any downtime will affect truckers, logistic companies, and drivers. To achieve operational excellence, charging hardware, charging management software, and support must work harmoniously. One of the critical challenges is the high power demand per charger (360kW) and energy demand (>500 kWh) per truck.
Truck as a Service is an innovative business model. For WattEV, this means the team has several requirements on the charging and vehicle data. Besides having reliable access to a flexible dashboard, WattEV requires an elaborative API that allows their teams to retrieve data and build weekly reports.
Electric middle-mile trucking will revolutionize the port areas. While ports, states, and companies are supporting initiatives, the equipment and vehicles are new and were launched only a few months ago. WattEV will need a partner to support possible technical issues when charging the latest truck models with their Charge America charger brand. Problems need to be logged and resolved efficiently with the different OEMs.
Solution
The commissioning of new EV chargers is a critical step. The earlier the chargers are operating reliably; the better WattEV can enter into daily operations. Ampcontrol’s charging management software had a 100% uptime since the beginning of commissioning. The software caught all charging data error messages and helped the teams gain insights into possible issues. The onsite teams and remote monitoring staff could make daily decisions efficiently. This helped to accelerate the commissioning process significantly.
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DC Fast Chargers are complex systems. Especially during the commissioning phase, the chargers are expected to have some issues that need to be addressed. With Ampcontrol’s software, WattEV and Ampcontrol’s support team receive instant notifications to phones, pagers, or email addresses. The software provides several views that visualize error messages per asset and reasons for possible unexpected behavior (e.g., charging stopped). Since the site is fully commissioned, the 24/7/365 team uses the software for daily and weekly reviews and dispatches of possible service providers.
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Critical success factors for the site uptime have been Ampcontrol’s 24/7/365 support, which aims to monitor the chargers and react within short time frames when errors occur. The support team then communicates these issues with WattEV on the following day. Since Ampcontrol has team members on all continents, drivers always have instant support through Ampcontrol’s help desk.
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