The HRMM remotely monitors one or more charge points to ensure they are online and available for use.
Fund
GRACE is funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the
Project status
Completed: February 2020
Challenge
Charge points are notoriously unreliable. The EV charging sector is still growing and challenges remain. Reliability of charging infrastructure is a key issue. Approximately 20% of UK chargers are unavailable currently due to faults. There are many typical faults that can occur that are in principle simple to solve, however currently require onsite diagnostics and intervention. This takes time and money to resolve!
Current fault management approach in the market
Chargers often have debilitating faults that leave the chargers offline and unable to reboot without an engineer site visit. A lot of these faults can be resolved by a hard reboot, but this cannot be done remotely if the charger is offline. But it typically takes 2-5 working days for an engineer to go to site and cost approx. £120. plus loss of charger revenue.
This causes issues for fleets who rely on vehicles being charged for essential services and is a deterrent to switching to electric vehicles and a debilitating inconvenience to those who have already taken the plunge.
Project approach
The GRACE project has developed the Hubeleon Remote Maintenance Module (HRMM) that enables remote charge point diagnostics and maintenance.
What does it do?
The HRMM remotely monitors one or more charge points to ensure they are online and available for use. When faults occur the HRMM can remotely resolve them or if the fault still cannot be resolved will alert the maintenance contractor for site visit.
Features
Diagnostics proxy
Offline operation
Heartbeat online checks
Remote reboot
UPS loss of mains power monitoring
Benefits
The HRMM’s automated diagnostics and fault resolution capability means that the uptime of charge points is increased and the need to visit site is reduced to when all other diagnostics and remote solutions have been exhausted.
The HRRM can improve EV charging services by:
Offering an improved service that is reliable and efficient by reducing charger downtime from easily resolved faults and increasing charger availability at the same time reducing the need for unnecessary maintenance call outs.
Reducing maintenance contract risks and costs by increasing the visibility of charger faults, auto remote fault diagnostics and solving and sending alerts for when remote fault resolution has been exhausted and a site visit is necessary.
Commercial application
The GRACE project has enabled Hangar19 to develop advanced fault detection, management and resolution capability for the Hubeleon product range.
The HRMM capability has been implemented and incorporated into the Hubeleon CPMS and Controller range, find out more about our Hubeleon products here.
