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July 23, 2024
Gas pumps are pretty straightforward compared to EV chargers. You just roll up, pump your gas, and off you go. They’re rugged, designed to handle a bit of rough weather and the occasional spill. Maintenance mostly boils down to keeping them clean and pumping freely.
But with EV chargers, it’s a whole different ball game. Yes, they suffer from some physical wear and tear and they are prone to getting hot while charging. But there’s more to it than just the physical upkeep.
EV chargers are sophisticated electronic pieces that need to weather the elements, as well as maintain constant communication with network systems and transfer data. They need regular updates, like software patches to keep security tight and functionality smooth. Plus, they interact a lot more with the user, providing details on charging levels, rates, and sometimes even dynamic updates on power availability or pricing.
While EV charger equipment gets better and more reliable every year, they are far from perfect and faults still happen. Most site operators need to achieve a 98% uptime or higher to ensure a good driver experience and EV fleet uptime.
At Ampcontrol, we work with major global fleet operators and charging operators every day. We see a variety of unique approaches to EV charger maintenance. Here we’ve compiled some of the best practices we’ve seen.
If you’ve ever watched Formula 1 racing, you might know that F1 teams have a guiding principle – testing wins the race. An F1 team that tests their vehicle more than others will have a big advantage over others in the race with less testing. The same goes for EV charging sites.
The more you test your equipment, train personnel, and put solutions in place to overcome challenges – the better your equipment will perform when it matters. If you want to install reliable chargers at your site, first you need to test them. You need to test their general reliability, O&M capabilities, monitoring functionalities, and OEM support.
It’s really important to choose the right kind of charger from day one. For example, logistic companies don’t have consumers using their charging infrastructure, so they don’t need chargers with expensive and fragile touch screens.
Another example could be last-mile delivery fleets, who might only need AC chargers, rather than DC chargers. AC chargers are cheaper to replace and repair, making the O&M costs much lower.
If your company doesn’t have expertise in charging infrastructure or isn’t big enough to maintain multiple sites across the country, you’ll need to select O&M providers. We’ve seen some people make the mistake of buying chargers alone, in the mistaken belief that the warranty covers general inspections, repairs, and maintenance.
O&M companies are specialized in repairing electrical equipment such as solar panels or EV chargers. They have trained technicians who received training sessions from hardware manufacturers or their peers, so they’re well qualified to maintain the chargers to a high standard.
You can get different types of contracts with O&M providers. For high uptime requirements, it is important to select an SLA with short response times (2 to 4 hours). If you select longer response times, it means you won’t get prompt on-site help and your uptime will drop quickly.
Also, it’s important to define exactly who will store spare parts and cover warranty cases. This is part of the service offerings of some O&M providers, but others will not store spare parts for customers since it is expensive. The market currently has over 25 hardware suppliers with multiple models and versions.
Last but not least, if you feel this step seems complicated and outside of what your team can negotiate, you can consider working with a solution provider who offers charging-as-a-service (CaaS). Companies like Electrada and Voltera offer full services including the selection, install, maintenance and monitoring of EV chargers.
Having best-in-class hardware and a fast-response O&M service isn’t enough to guarantee a high charger uptime and good driver experience. For that you need to implement reliable remote charger monitoring. The software receives charger information in real-time and alerts your team if it detects a possible issue.
This software is used by electric truck companies such as WattEV to monitor charging stations 24/7 and respond quickly to technical issues. Software like this has to cover the following functionalities, and more:
The earlier you can inform your O&M team or partner to dispatch a technician, the better your uptime will be. Good charging management software becomes your single point of truth and is integral to the success of an EV charging site.
Do you have a support team? Can they respond within 24 hours? If not, are you okay for weekend alerts to be unmanaged until Monday?
These are questions you need to answer when setting up your EV charger maintenance operation. It sets the expectations for managers, as well as helping you decide whether to outsource some parts of the operation.
If you expect a 24/7 charger monitoring team, you should select a partner that will guarantee a fast response.
Here at Ampcontrol, when we offer these services, we have staff active in different time zones. They receive alerts, write detailed error reports, and inform the O&M technician team about our observations. Even better news is that many issues can be fixed remotely, which reduces your maintenance costs.
Continuous improvement of the charging system and process is important. How will your drivers report issues when charging on-site? How can you help them instantly? How are general user issues reported back to the team?
The help desk is ideal for finding out about hardware issues that can’t be picked up remotely. Drivers appreciate it too, especially if they’ve just finished a long day on the road, the temperatures are freezing, it’s late in the evening and they just want to get home. It’s reassuring to have someone ready at the end of a phone to help them get the charging station working.
Operating a help desk contributes to a best-in-class hardware uptime, as well as an exceptional user experience. At Ampcontrol, our EV driver help desk is directly connected to our software platform, which makes it reliable as our support team has access to real-time information.
Complex devices like chargers typically run more than one software system. Similar to your smartphone, these systems need regular updates to maintain the security, interoperability, and add new functionalities.
Firmware updates for EV chargers are a common cause of hardware failure. This happens because some hardware is poorly installed without performance testing for their firmware updates. If they run updates without notifying customers, then problems are likely to occur.
Being able to control your firmware updates with Ampcontrol gives you a competitive edge. For instance, you can test the new firmware on only a few chargers for an extended period. Only after successful long-term testing are you ready to update the remaining chargers.
You also get to decide what time of the day is good to update the chargers. This way, you can avoid downtime during your peak utilization period.
If you’re currently thinking about electrifying your fleet, take the time to pick out EV chargers that meet your needs – whether it’s heavy-duty fast chargers for quick turnarounds or more economical AC chargers for overnight topping up.
But just as important as choosing the right EV chargers is choosing the right EV charging software.
Ampcontrol lets you:
For more information about EV charger maintenance, software, and more, you can reach out to us here.
Ampcontrol is a cloud-based software that seamlessly connects to charging networks, vehicles, fleet systems, and other software systems. No hardware needed, just a one-time integration.
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