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kudos50 avatar image
kudos50 asked

Victron EV Charger load balancing

I have done some digging on the forums but was unable to figure out if the EV charger can do load balancing when connected to a Grid parallel ESS setup ?

In the Netherlands it's pretty common to have 3x25A Grid. But with electric cars, induction cooking, ovens, heat pumps and bursty consumers like dishwashers load balancing quickly comes into the picture. Not to mention the new DESS solution that buys and sells automatically even if no PV yield.

I quickly drafted something in HomeAssistant to control my Elvi charge power which would probably work on Victron as well but I'd like to keep the solutions separate and switch to Victron. My ESS has a grid meter so the Cerbo knows when a phase exceeds 25A. I am not sure but I think DESS is also just monitoring for the total of phases. i.e. if 75A total then charge less. This can still cause problems as one phase can reach 35 without all of them coming even close to 75.

Is there a way to set this up within the Victron software ?

ev charging stationdynamic essbalanced ac-load
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Michelle Konzack avatar image Michelle Konzack commented ·

Welcome to the club!


Yes, with EV Charger, Induction Cooker, Washing machine, mayen HeatPump, electric Boiler and what else you will run into problems with 400V/25A.


My Business Partner has the same issue and they have to upgrade to 40A, because you can not easily put 35A on a singel phase if you have only 25A, not even in the Netherlands. In short time, maybe 10-15min it would work, but then the main fuse blow.


I will in the End of the month change the wireing of the BIG (over 40 Fuse-Automats) Fuse-Box, to equalize the three phases.


Because the HeatPump (3,6kW max) has 400V, the 5 Circilation Pumps together max 500W, then L1+L2 the Induction Cooker 7,2kW, L3 the Baking Oven (2kW), EV charger 7kW, then the washing machine 2,4kW, the Dish Wacher 1,8kW, ...


25A per phase mean, only 5,7kW @230V.

With 40A, is is still not perfect, but at least 9,2kW per phase.

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·


HI, This is probably what you need


1704715616227.png


1704715616227.png (57.3 KiB)
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kudos50 avatar image kudos50 commented ·
Can you elaborate a bit on this ? I am probably looking in the wrong place but have been unable to find how this is working and the few hits on google only show users that have unresolved issues with it.

Is this an EV charging station setting ? Does the EVCS simply pull grid meter data from the modbus connection with the Cerbo and throttle based on that ?

If so, how is throttling triggered, sum of phases or individual phase ? In my experience, even the Multi+2 setpoint to assist in grid parallel is performed on sum of phases causing it to invert too late. i.e.; if set point is 16kW (23A?) and ESS is configured to individual phase, invert only, inverting for the one phase in need only starts once 16kW is reached over all phases. Same for DESS grid setting.

So besides my story about heat-pumps and cars, a grid parallel DESS setup will not prevent a fuse from blowing. It will only work when everything is connected to AC-out

FYI: upgrading to 3x35A is pretty expensive in the Netherlands. I think it's about 1000 euro's per year. Victron ESS users making a case for their setup should not only incorporate costs and possible revenue but should also incorporate the saving of NOT having to upgrade their grid capacity.

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ kudos50 commented ·

"Does the EVCS simply pull grid meter data from the modbus connection with the Cerbo and throttle based on that ?" - yes, it's trying to keep the total consumption below the limit by reducing the EVCS charging power or stopping it if necesary

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kudos50 avatar image kudos50 Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
Got one more question for you @Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) . The overload protection settings automatically takes the max grid connection value from the Cerbo / Multis. In my setup that is not the same value.

In other words, it works fine. But I have a 3x25A grid connection and only 3x16A to the Victron ESS setup. Therefore, the Multis grid connection is configured to 16A and perform peak shaving over that value.

Is there any way to "configure" the definition of overload differently ? Or for now, simply override the value ?

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ kudos50 commented ·
Hi, no, the EVCS is using the AC In current limit as overload value
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kudos50 avatar image kudos50 Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
okiedokie. Can I hereby request a feature enhancement to make it configurable :-) ?
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Auke avatar image
Auke answered ·

How can you set the maximum amperage for the load balancing when you only have the Victron EV-charger and a Cerbo GX with EM24 energy meters in the line from PV-inverter and one right after the main grid meter, but no batterypack and no quattro or multi.

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