Is it possible to combine the grid and solar power for charging faster? I installed the 22kW charger yesterday, set the grid limit to 16A (since that is what my grid connection is limited to), set up dynamic load sharing and went to town charging while solar for producing about 11kW as well. The car accepts up to 22kW, tried and tested. However, the charger only charges up to 16A, since it limits the load from the grid connection. I tried it with the regular, Eco and Eco plus charging.
Is there a way to have it use as much solar as possible and then also top out the grid connection limits if I so desire? I’d rather not set it up to use more amps than my grid connection is, since when there is a cloud or it’s in the evening, the charger will overdraw from the grid and cause the circuit breaker to break the connection, leaving me in the dark.
Question 2:
Is it possible to use one meter with multiple different chargers? I also have Wallbox Pulsar Plus, that supports the same meter I have (EM340), but I would like that to be secondary / slave to the Teltocharger. Is there any possibility for that?
I would need a little bit more information regarding the grid that you have. If you have 16A grid without any changes to your equipment I would not recommend going over that limit.
In theory, if you have import of only 16A from grid, you can enable charger to take more from the grid in supplement of solar energy. It requires of course balancing of smart meter or ct clamps, but from configuration side it only requires to enable desired maximum power from grid setting to be changed. As the charger will take the amount that is given by smart meter. I would suggest consultation with professional electrician to offer you safe solution. There a few cases like this implemented, but again, I cannot do any recommendation and specific information as it can cause damage to your grid without proper preparation.
In this case, you would need to get external controller. How the communication works between charger and smart meter is quite simple, there is always one master device and secondary device. They have communication with dedicated role. When there are two EVC station they can in theory work without any issues, but they require precise configuration and even then it’s not entirely safe from communication failures as they have a lot of areas to fail. The easiest option is external control device, you can find them in the dedicated shops or you can check with your local electrician. This way you will be connecting external control to the smart meter. It will act as the master device in the group and share the data to both of your chargers.
Connecting external control device to the EVC stations are not difficult. There are two ways, one is more common, basically using Modbus RTU for communication. It may require to check register map, but it should work with any type of EVC station that you can find. Then there the second option that does not require that much configuration, it’s communication utilizing OCPP protocol. The idea is that external device will be working using OCPP protocol to control both stations and share data.
If you want more specifics regarding question two, please let me know.
The grid connection is limited to 16A, but I also have a solar inverter with batteries that can also output the same power. If the inverter supplies almost the maximum that it can (full sun during the noon, for example) and I also draw from the grid, then I could get up to 22kW. With dynamic load managing, that wasn’t an issue with my previous charger, as it went up to the limit I had set in the hardware (32A per phase) and the dynamic load managing made sure the grid draw stayed right below 16A. If for some reason the inverter output suddenly dropped, then the charger would also lower the power, since otherwise the draw from the grid would get too big.
Right now, with the TeltoCharge, the dynamic load balaning current cannot be bigger than the maximum grid connection current. If I set the grid connection current bigger, then I can charger faster, but if the inverter output drops, then the grid circuit breaker disconnects due to overload. Or I’m limited to 16A charging, which often means that I get 13-14A from the sun and 2-3A from the grid - with a negative price, I’d rather maximize what I can draw from the grid during those hours.
Is there a way to disconnect the grid connection current and load balancing current? If I could set it up to draw up 16A from the grid, but have dynamic load balancing up to 32A, then the charger could charge my cars much faster. And while doing that, it would make sure that the charger doesn’t give out more than 32A (the DLM part), while also making sure the grid draw doesn’t exceed 16A. If the inverter outputs less energy, then I could still maximize the grid connection.
I’ll be setting up OCPP through Home Assistant for charging. If You ever plan to make an integration for Home Assistant, that would be awesome and better for direct control.