Support of Electric Vehicles and Charging Facilities （1）
Editor’s Note: These series are selected from manual Electric Vehicle Community Market Launch Manual: A Guide to Prepare Your Community for Electric Vehicles which was prepared by the Electric Transportation Coalition (ETC) and the Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas (EVAA) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
EV CHARGING SYSTEM MAINTENANCE
EV owners must be confident that their vehicles will be available when needed. Therefore, any charger equipment problems need to be addressed quickly and reliably.
Like many appliances, the charger will require on-site repair. In the case of most privately owned EVs, that site will likely be at the home. For commercial fleets, the main charging site will likely be the fleet’s centrally located garage.
The charger may be integrally linked with the vehicle (as in the case of an on-board charger system) or may have multiple charging components on the vehicle to support an off board charger. For example, homeowners will have either an off-board charger installed at their residence or own an EV with an on-board charger, supplemented by a home connection device mounted on the wall.
In either case, the service organization must be qualified to examine the charger and the vehicle to determine which has malfunctioned. The customer will likely require the convenience of having the problem—be it vehicle or charger—diagnosed by the same service organization at the repair site. Repair authorization will be at the discretion of the customer.
The case study below discusses one utility’s plans for an EV service network:
Virginia Power (VP)
VP plans to develop a service network to support its customers’ EV chargers. VP will sell or lease chargers to EV owners in an effort to create a common infrastructure in its service territory, and has chosen a technical service company to provide charger service and repair. As the network evolves, service personnel will be located in markets with the highest EV concentrations.
A consumer’s request for service will begin with a call to VP’s 1-800 service hotline, and advice will be given over the telephone. If the advice does not solve the problem, the next step will be a service call. If the charger is still under warranty and the problem is diagnosed as a charger component failure, low-powered (level 1 or 2) chargers will be replaced. If the charger is no longer covered by the warranty, the customer can rent a replacement unit while the charger is being repaired at the service center. High-powered chargers (level 3), which are more difficult to exchange than level1and2 chargers, will likely be repaired on site.
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Electric Car Conversion Manual
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