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bulmonoss avatar image
bulmonoss asked

EV Charging Station Auto mode – Spain

Hi,

The reason why I write this question is the situation in Spain with the surplus power sent to the grid.

With the cheapest electricity tariff right now, the one from the “regulated market”, you are punished having to pay for the surplus power sent to the grid most of the hours when the sun shines.

With the latest EVCS firmware versions you need around 1.500W of excess power sent to the grid to activate the auto mode. I remember that with some previous old firmwares just having a little surplus power sent to the grid the auto mode was activated.

Considering that now you can “allow battery/grid power for auto mode” for a certain amount of time, it could be great that, having it allowed, when you press “start” it starts charging with 6A, despite having or not excess power sent to the grid, and then it stops if the car is full or if the “battery/grid power timeout” is reached without getting surplus power.

If it worked this way, with just 100W sent to the grid, the automatic mode could work perfectly without, almost, having to pay to send power to the grid, and with the grid inverter or MPPT working less stressed.

Is somebody having the same issue in other countries?

Could the Victron team consider the Spanish scenario and implement this little change in future firmware updates?

Thanks

ev charging station
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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi, the charging station can start charging even if feeding back is not enabled.

Make sure you are running the latest firmware and in setting, you can define the SOC when EVCS can start, have a look below.
1712910770539.png


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

Hi,

Just configured the power to the grid limit from 1.500W to 300W in my AC coupled Huawei.

I let the EVCS settings untouched:

settings.jpg

I chosed auto-mode, plugged the car, pressed “start” and, having between 200 and 300W of surplus power continuously for more than 30 minutes, the EVCS is always “waiting for sun”.

evcs-screen.jpg

vrm-dashboard.jpg

I tested it with the last firmware, with V1.27 did exactly the same.

I think it doesn’t behave the way you explain, ¿or am I missing something?

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settings.jpg (28.4 KiB)
4 Answers
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Please record a video of the main webpage of the EVCS while this is happening. And share it here.

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bulmonoss avatar image
bulmonoss answered ·

Hi,

Here are some videos of the EVCS main webpage.

  • “Start” Auto Mode with 300W of excess power limit sent to the grid (waiting sun):

  • With 1.000W of excess power limit sent to the grid (waiting sun):

  • With 1.400W of excess power limit sent to the grid (waiting sun):

  • With 1.500W of excess power limit sent to the grid the EVCS finally starts charging. I can’t record the screen at the same time I change the excess power grid limit, so the auto charging will “Start” again, and finally start charging the car.

To really start charging in Auto Mode there has to be a little more than 6A sent to the grid, besides having the battery SoC at 83% and the “Start charging at backup battery SoC” at 25%.


11-300w-start.mp4 (6.7 MiB)
12-1000w.mp4 (17.0 MiB)
13-1400w.mp4 (10.5 MiB)
2-1500w-start.mp4 (12.6 MiB)
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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
Yes, that's as expected. Minimum charging current for most of the vehicles is 6A, so that's why is starting above 1.4kW.
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bulmonoss avatar image
bulmonoss answered ·

Okay : ), it’s known that minimum charging current for most EVs is 6A.

I’ve opened a question about that in Auto Mode having "Allow battery/grid power for auto mode" active, the only way to start charging is to have around 1.500W (6+A) of solar production excess sent to grid, and that it'd be better if it starts with just a little surplus power to grid (given the explained Spanish circumstances).

Then you reply:

“Hi, the charging station can start charging even if feeding back is not enabled.

Make sure you are running the latest firmware and in setting, you can define the SOC when EVCS can start…”

After some pictures and videos without any relevant new information, that just show the same as the initial question, you reply again:

“Yes, that's as expected. Minimum charging current for most of the vehicles is 6A, so that's why is starting above 1.4kW.”

Both replies seem contradictory, incompatible between them referred to the subject of the question.

About the need of 6+A of excess to grid being necessary to start charging in Auto Mode, as expected:

- with the old firmware, when auto mode already existed but you couldn't choose "Allow battery/grid power for auto mode", with just 100W (not above 1.400W) sent to the grid the EVCS start charging. This were the times when if some clouds appeared/disappeared, the charger contactor switched every time, and the car’s contactor consequently...
- And now, with , "Allow battery/grid power for auto mode" active, it does not start until 6A go to grid, despite being allowed to take power from battery/grid…

Doesn't seem to have any sense.

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
To give the right answer I have to understand the whole situation, that's why I'm asking questions. Each system is unique, every user is asking for something else.

And to reply, we are planning to add a switch to allow staring even if the PV power is not enough. Now, as I said above, minimum available current is 6A

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
@bulmonoss Please check your email
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ricardong avatar image
ricardong answered ·

hello, I have a similar problem, but in my case the installation is without surplus, the automatic mode never starts, but I understand that you can charge the car in off grid installations, so how can I make it charge the car when the battery is at 100% and there is surplus (there is never any because it is without discharge).

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