EV drivers are up in arms about the pitiful reliability of public chargers, and CPOs are listening. ChargePoint “has announced a significant investment in the application of technology from the networking and information security worlds, which aims to deliver charging station reliability of nearly 100% once fully implemented.”
ChargePoint’s brand-new Network Operations Center (NOC) will implement 24/7 proactive station monitoring, and will use predictive analytics and machine learning to more rapidly detect station downtime. ChargePoint explains that constant communication between charging stations and the NOC will enable it to alert station owners in the event of a problem and to accelerate maintenance and repairs. The NOC’s machine learning and natural language processing capabilities will automatically process data feeds and social media mentions to pinpoint individual charging stations with issues. For ChargePoint Assure Pro customers, 24-hour response will be offered.
The company will also introduce a comprehensive training program to certify electrical contractors that install EV charging infrastructure. This is expected to go live early in 2024.
“Uptime” is the figure commonly used to quantify the reliability of technology, but the EV charging industry has not yet adopted any standard measurement for uptime (standards body SAE is working on this issue). ChargePoint says it measures station uptime as “the portion of time each individual charging port is working, as a driver pulling in for a charge would expect, not averaged across a bank of charging stations at a single address.” The company claims to be currently delivering 96% uptime across its entire public network in North America and Europe, and 98% for ChargePoint Assure customers.
“Accessible, reliable EV charging plays a critical role in the ongoing shift to electric mobility, and our Network Operations Center is prepared to ensure reliability at scale in support of EV adoption.” said ChargePoint COO Rick Wilmer. “We believe that our methodology of calculating uptime is the most transparent in the industry, and the most relevant to drivers, which provides us with the necessary benchmark to build upon.”
Source: ChargePoint
