After more than four years of scientific research, the National Key R&D Program "New Energy Vehicles" key project, "Research and Application Demonstration of Safe, Controllable, Energy-Interconnected, and Open Intelligent Charging Network," led by Qingdao TGOOD Electric Co., Ltd., and with the participation of leading universities and enterprises in various fields such as North China Electric Power University, China Automotive Technology R&D Center, Tianjin Lishen Group, CATL, Yutong Bus, and Chongqing Changan, has passed the comprehensive performance evaluation. This project is of great significance to promoting the marketization and application of intelligent charging networks in my country.
In an interview, Yu Dexiang, Chairman of Qingdao TGOOD Electric Co., Ltd., stated, "The project's intelligent charging network has been deployed in 344 cities nationwide, with 127 city operation companies established, providing technical support for charging services for over 2 million electric vehicles. The demonstration results show that the intelligent charging network project has excellent vehicle-charging pile compatibility, environmental adaptability, and safety stability."
Electric vehicle charging faces three main problems
As the global energy crisis deepens and environmental awareness grows, governments worldwide are elevating the electric vehicle industry to a strategic level. Statistics released by the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security show that as of March 2021, the number of new energy vehicles in China reached 5.51 million. Among them, pure electric vehicles accounted for 4.49 million, or 81.53% of the total.
Consequently, China has become the country with the fastest development of charging infrastructure. According to statistics from the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, as of March 2021, member units of the alliance reported a total of approximately 851,000 public charging piles.
At the same time, the rapid development of electric vehicles has also brought a series of challenges, among which charging safety is of particular concern. The increasing number of electric vehicles has led to a significant increase in charging demand, while charging safety accidents occur frequently, with charging equipment and power batteries being the two main causes. Currently, my country's safety assessment of charging equipment and batteries is at the level of meeting relevant standards, lacking comprehensive assessment and evaluation indicators. Corresponding evaluation methods are also needed for measures taken to warn and protect against charging safety accidents involving charging equipment.
Furthermore, with technological innovation in electric vehicle charging operation services, the use of apps for charging payment, based on charging networks as a platform, is gradually replacing the traditional charging card payment method. As operation services deepen and the demand for electric vehicle charging grows, these apps are being endowed with increasingly more value-added service functions. Different types of companies have formed a collaborative and competitive industrial system in areas such as equipment manufacturing, charging network construction, platform development, and service operation.
However, with the release of charging cards and charging apps by various operators, these cards and apps cannot be shared or used interchangeably. To obtain relatively convenient charging services, electric vehicle users have to apply for charging cards from multiple operators and download and register multiple apps. Therefore, achieving sharing and interconnection of charging facilities from different operators is essential in the development of electric vehicles and the construction of charging infrastructure.
"The lack of standards, incomplete supporting policies, and relatively lagging infrastructure construction have led to prominent safety issues during electric vehicle charging, hindering the growth of my country's electric vehicle industry," said Yu Dexiang. He added that the research team started with proactive safety protection for charging facilities and combined cloud platform big data with a full lifecycle management solution that includes historical tracing of charging records. This provides an effective method for solving problems related to charging safety, the integration of charging demands, and data interconnection and openness.
The intelligent charging network organically connects people, vehicles, and energy.
Solving infrastructure system security issues and ensuring charging safety are essential for establishing an interconnected and open smart charging network. Addressing the current problems of the inability to diagnose and warn of abnormalities in key battery indicators during electric vehicle charging, and the rapid degradation of battery life due to the single charging method, the R&D team, after referencing relevant electric vehicle charging standards, conducted technical research on module circuit control and protection, harmonic suppression, battery status monitoring, active protection battery safety early warning for charging facilities, and safe charging evaluation. Ultimately, they developed the CMS active flexible smart charging system, designed and manufactured equipment suitable for large-scale charging, and proposed an integrated safe charging comprehensive evaluation method applicable to charging infrastructure operation services.
When a vehicle is charging on the newly developed intelligent charging network, the network performs safety checks across 19 models and 27 dimensions. Through a dual-layer protection system encompassing both charging equipment and data protection, the charging network's management system expands spatially from the traditional battery management system (BMS) to include both charging equipment and big data. Temporally, the network's operation integrates historical vehicle data and data from similar vehicles, constructing a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, and systematic electric vehicle charging safety model. This represents a significant step forward in making the charging process monitorable, predictable, controllable, and traceable in terms of potential vehicle safety hazards. Data comparison and analysis show that the charging network can prevent 73% of vehicle fires.
According to Yu Dexiang, the charging network is the future of electric vehicle charging. He believes that a charging pile is a physical plug that plugs electricity into a car, while a charging network is a physical connection and intelligent transformation of dozens or hundreds of charging piles in an area. When the number of electric vehicles reaches a certain level, it will inevitably impact the power distribution network during peak charging periods. Therefore, building a smart charging network is the main way to solve the problem of large-scale electric vehicle charging.
Yu Dexiang explained that the "Research and Application Demonstration of Safe, Controllable, Energy Interconnected, and Open Smart Charging Network" project is based on charging pile equipment. It establishes a charging network at the distribution network end and forms a smart charging solution through scheduling and management. This solution charges vehicles in batches according to user habits in different time periods to ensure stable power consumption and reduce the impact of disorderly charging on the power grid. The charging efficiency and safety factor are greatly enhanced compared to a single charging pile.
"The charging network's big data requires a large platform for support; we collect as much as 9 terabytes (TB) of data every day," Yu Dexiang explained. To date, they have over 3.5 million users. To address this, the project established a cloud-based charging network interconnection data platform. By creating an open data platform, they have achieved interconnection with charging operators, government regulatory platforms, vehicle operators, and internet platforms, integrating multiple charging services into third-party platforms and mobile apps.
Yu Dexiang explained that the charging network data platform, which integrates four layers of networks—data network, energy network, Internet of Things, and equipment network—includes not only charging electricity cost data, but also grid data, electric vehicle BMS data, vehicle driving data, and charging behavior data. Based on big data, more business lines have emerged, such as providing car owners with value-added data services including user data analysis, vehicle diagnostics, repair, maintenance, parts, and insurance. It also provides comprehensive services such as product design, optimization, and evaluation for upstream and downstream companies in the industry chain, including vehicle manufacturers and battery manufacturers.
Industry-academia-research-application integration helps cities achieve carbon neutrality
At the Canglong Island charging station for buses in Wuhan, peak-shifting charging is implemented using a smart charging network. After implementing the peak-shifting and valley-filling charging strategy at the same bus charging station, the average daily electricity price dropped from 0.8075 yuan to 0.4286 yuan, saving more than 30,000 yuan in electricity costs per month, reducing costs by nearly half.
This application scenario is just a microcosm of the project's promotion. The project's results can not only meet the needs of large-scale electric vehicle charging and assist the power grid in peak shaving and valley filling, but also absorb the curtailment of wind, hydro, and solar power, enabling new energy vehicles to charge with new energy electricity, reducing thermal power, reducing smog, and lowering the electricity costs for new energy vehicles.
Electric vehicles combined with charging networks represent one of the best paths to achieving carbon neutrality. Yu Dexiang explained that electric vehicles do not burn gasoline and therefore do not emit carbon. The charging network not only provides the technological support for electric vehicles but also connects the batteries of each vehicle into a huge energy storage network, leveraging the potential of large-scale absorption of new energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower.
"The smart charging network is the result of industry-academia-research collaboration, joint innovation, and integrated innovation," said Yu Dexiang. He added that throughout the project's implementation, the Ministry of Science and Technology provided top-level design, scheme optimization, and policy guidance in project management and services. It also organized an expert advisory group to provide technical support and guidance to the project team, thus promoting the achievement of the project's goals in charging facility construction, operation, and demonstration.
Yu Dexiang explained that during the project's execution period, the R&D team achieved a number of representative results in patents, papers, standards, and software copyrights. The project members, comprised of leading domestic industrial internet companies, research institutes, and renowned universities, fully leveraged their joint research and multi-industry advantages during project implementation, closely cooperating in government, industry, academia, research, finance, and application.
Regarding the future of smart charging networks, Yu Dexiang stated that as the number of electric vehicles in my country continues to rise, smart charging networks, as a fundamental infrastructure for new energy, will play a significant role in the large-scale development of new energy vehicles, demonstrating their enormous economic and social value.
