EV Ready Meter Panels and Switchboards
What is an EV-Ready Meter Panel?
EV Ready Meter Panels are typically used for residential strata plans, where the electricity meters for each unit are in or very close to the car parking areas. EV-ready meter panels allow us to connect EV Chargers for each individual parking space to the electricity meter for the apartment to which the parking space belongs.
EV Charging is a system which has not previously been a feature of most residential strata buildings. Consequently, the existing switchboards in most residential strata plans are not adequately set up to cater to EV charging circuits.
Is it worth upgrading the meter panels?
In many cases for existing residential strata buildings, the electrical infrastructure is outdated and ready to be upgraded in any case. For example, around Sydney, many residential strata buildings were built in the 1960s and the switchboards and meter panels are around 60 years old. Switchgear manufacturers typically design the equipment in switchboards to last for about 30 years. Even the Australian Tax Office says that the depreciation lifetime of a switchboard is 20 years. So it is easy to understand that a 60 year old switchboard would be due for an upgrade.
What is different about our EV-ready Meter Panels?
- Modern meter panels are IP rated (rated to resist the ingress of dust and moisture)
- Use metal and non-flammable switchpanel material, rather than timber and Asbestos Containing materials which were present in some older boards.
- Use Circuit Breakers and RCBOs (safety switches) rather than fuses.
- Allow for safe and effective control and isolation of circuits.
- Are specially designed to allow more space to allow for circuit protection for EV Charging Circuits.
What is different about our EV-ready Meter Main Switchboards?
- Designed to provide the required electrical capacity to support your EV Charging installation
- Use metal and non-flammable switchpanel materials.
- Designed to meet the latest Australian Standard for Switchboards – AS/NZS 61439 Series.
- Feature an ethernet connected Power Meter which forms part of the Load Management System for your EV charging installation.
How does the LMS avoid overloading the building’s supply?
There are two typical methods for managing the total load of an EV charging setpoint:
How long will the power be off during an upgrade?
How do I find out if I need a switchboard upgrade?
In both cases, the Load Management System ensures that there is never a situation where the EV load causes an overload of the site’s electrical installation.
Hardware LMS or Cloud LMS?
Load Management is all about preventing risk to the electrical installation and to building users. There’s not much point having the fastest EV Charging in town if the building users keep suffering blackouts. So it is imperative that Load Management is a priority because it is a matter of safety.
For that reason, we recommend an on-site hardware LMS rather than a Cloud LMS. Why? Because an on-site hardware LMS doesn’t need an internet connection or a server to keep operating effectively – It handles all the Load Management on site, 24/7 irrespective of internet faults, server faults and any other IT hassles. An on-site hardware LMS provides the most reliable solution possible and reliability of our EV charging systems is what Electrify EV is all about.
A hardware LMS such as the Schneider Electric EcoStruxure™ EV Charging Expert can also take an input from your building’s fire detection system (or any other system for that matter) and shut down the chargers in a controlled way in case an emergency arises.
Would you like to know more about Load Management Systems? Contact us today for a free consultation.