GRA
Well-known member
https://www2.greencarreports.com/ne...oes-tagless-tests-battery-buffers-at-stations
At an event in Los Angeles on Monday, EVgo turned on the first DC fast charger in the nation that doesn't rely on RFID tags or even credit cards to be activated—other than the Tesla Supercharger network, of course.
The first of three new chargers to use the ISO Plug&Charge standard opened on Monday at a station in Venice used by ride-sharing cars from GM's Maven service, which operates in LA and 11 other cities in North America. Other chargers at the public station are in line to get the technology as well. . . .
EVgo calls the feature Autocharge, rather than Plug&Charge, a name which rival network Electrify America announced it will use. . . .
The Plug&Charge system which is not yet supported by all cars or automakers, stores payment data along with vehicle parameters in software on the car, and uses the data connection in the charge cable to transmit the payment and identification data to initiate charging. . . .
Based on a new ISO standard 15118, the technology is expected to begin rolling out to chargers that regular electric-car drivers can use later this year. So far, however, there are few EVs that can use it.
Storage batteries
Last week, EVgo also announced that it installed various configurations of 14 storage batteries at 11 of its DC fast charging stations to essentially act as buffers to help balance power demands, and thus minimize expensive demand charges from utilities.
The company will test different battery configurations to gather data on what's most cost-effective. Among the trials are used batteries from BMW i3s, batteries tied to single fast-chargers, and those tied to a pair of fast chargers. One of those chargers is at the University of California, San Diego, and another testbed is at a station in Baker, California, (adjacent to the world's largest thermometer) on the way from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, which also has solar panels. . . .