Eleven years after the launch of its dynamic load management solution to the market, Circontrol, the leading manufacturer of charging solutions, has updated its Dynamic Load Management (DLM) to include DC charging and photovoltaic energy.
The DLM is a software solution that was designed to efficiently manage energy in a charging infrastructure with several charging points.
It manages the energy available for EV charging dynamically and balances the power according to the needs at any given time.
Until now, Circontrol’s DLM was only able to dynamically manage AC chargers, but it can now also manage fast and ultrafast charging stations, that is DC chargers.
With this expansion, the charging point manufacturer is responding to the growing market need to charge vehicles with larger batteries and greater autonomy in the shortest possible time, as well as to the energy challenge that this poses.
Moreover, as was the case with the version that only managed AC points, this update helps avoid the high cost of expanding the electrical infrastructure because the DLM will always efficiently balance the power available for the load, considering the consumption of the rest of the installations and avoiding overloading.
This is especially relevant when fast chargers come into the equation, as these devices require more power to run.
Maximising the use of solar energy
The possibility of adding the energy generated by other sources, such as self generated energy from photovoltaic panels, has also been incorporated in this new update of Circontrol’s DLM.
Indeed, this functionality is very beneficial in settings where it is difficult to supply energy or where the investment to increase the contracted power is very high.
It should be noted that Circontrol’s DLM is compatible with any inverter on the market, which allows projects that already have photovoltaic panels to use this energy to charge electric vehicles.
In fact, the DLM will always automatically prioritise the energy coming from the panels, helping to achieve a faster return on investment and reduce costs, as well as minimising environmental impact.
At the same time, when the energy demand of the charging points increases, the DLM will combine both energy sources (solar and grid), to take advantage of that increased prioritisation of fast charging.
Two success stories
The Eurotrak service station (Lleida, Spain) is already benefiting from the new functionalities of Circontrol’s DLM.
In this case, the customer had three fast charging points (250 kW and 1 150 kW) and a contracted power of 50 kW as well as 90 kW of energy from its more than 200 PV panels.
In addition, that energy must supply 18 refuelling lanes, a bar-restaurant, a shop and many other services for the transporters.
Thanks to the DLM, the client can dynamically manage the power available for charging without compromising the other installations, as well as take advantage of the energy generated to offer its customers fast charging while minimising the associated costs.
Similarly, on the French island of Réunion, a project is also underway involving DLM, DC chargers and PV panels.
In this case, as it is a difficult energy supply environment, the use of the DLM solar + DC is ideal as the 20 kW generated by the solar panels are added to the 90 kW of contracted power, making fast charging possible with two DC stations, a Raption 50 (50 kW) and a Raption 100 (100 kW).
