Charging Stations Protection

Why protect?

The electronic systems of  Electric Vehicle Charging stations (EVC) are susceptible to damage resulting from lightning activity (direct and indirect). Failure to protect can lead to costly hardware replacement as well as lost revenue.

What to protect?

  • Rectifier for the DC charging output
  • Rectifier for powering the control unit
  • Battery – in case of charging station with energy accumulation
  • Communication between the control unit and the charging connector (eg RS485).
  • Signal from the charging connector
    (eg temperature measurement)
  • Communication between antenna and control unit (eg Ethernet) for data cable longer than 1 metre
 Placement of SPDs in a car park situation

Example of types of SPDs for the protection of charging stations:

  1. Three-pole combined high performance lightning current arrester. Actual units will vary according to the earth system (TNC, TT etc) as well as data line voltages.
  2. Three-pole combined high performance lightning current arrester. Install on cabling in the ground.
  3. Type 3 surge protection with integrated noise-suppressing RF filter.
  4. Two-stage overvoltage protection of signal lines.
  5. Two-stage overvoltage protection of RS-485 signal lines.
  6. Two-stage overvoltage protection of Power over Ethernet lines. For cable longer than 1 metre.