Public Charging
This section provides information to building owners and tenant who wish to provide charging solutions to the general public. If you are looking for a public charging station, please visit the Charging Maps and Apps section of this website.
Introduction
Public charging is an application where an owner or a tenant of a parking wants to offer a charging service to the public. For this application, the charging time is generally between 1 hour and 3 hours, and where the EV driver does not necessarily seek a full charge, but wants to charge his vehicle while he is doing something else (eating, shopping, meeting, etc.). As the owner of charging stations intended to serve the EV drivers who need to charge, it is important to bill for this service to prevent people of abusing of this privilege in leaving their vehicle connected to the EVSE while their vehicle is fully charged.
To maximize the use of your public EVSE and improve the experience of EV drivers, it is recommended that guidance (sign painting in the parking lot) be displayed to locate the EVSE in your park. This also ensures that your EVSE provider networks has a management system that communicates with each of the EVSE and ensures that the information thereof (location, status, pricing, etc..) is available in real time on the Web portal of the provider and various platforms (PlugShare, Mogile Technologies, etc..).
Depending on the traffic in your parking, it is also wise to provide the future proof electrical infrastructure to eventually increase the number of charging stations down the road and thereby provide the electrical work in the initial installation to easily add, at a low cost, other EVSEs.
EVSE Features
Robust EVSE
Public charging necessarily brings the risk of vandalism (hits, fire, etc.) and exposure to harsh weather conditions and the choice of a robust EVSE is recommended. The quality of the material is essential, as well as the temperature range over which the EVSE can operate and last.
Cable
Flexible at cold temperatures and with no physical memory. Depending on the location, we recommend a longer than a shorter cable.
Retractable cable system
In some cases, the use of products with good retractable cable system (ball bearing, stainless steel, etc..) can be a good option, but make sure that the system continuously never leaves thee cable on the ground during usage (a cable that touches the ground during charging does not accomplish its mission: it will remain stuck in the snow in the winter and will stumble passers-by) and force EV drivers to park in a precise way (too short cable will require the EV driver to park according to the location of the charging port on their EV).
Smart EVSE
We recommend connecting an EVSE to a server with a reliable telecommunication system (3G, LAN yarn), to have a user interface (e.g.: display) to facilitate its use and to display the total cost of the usage session at the end of each session, a way to be authenticate to access the EVSE (RFID card, Smart phone, etc.) and lock the connector on the station to prevent anyone from accessing the connector.
Networking features
Continuous monitoring
The EVSE is constantly monitored by the manager of public charging network to be able to respond quickly if there is an interruption of service. In this application it is unacceptable when an EVSE cannot provide service.
Authentication management
We suggest that you allow at least two terminal methods to access the EVSE (RFID card, smart phone, etc.).
Payment management
It is important that the payment system offered be PCI-DSS, that it bills your customers in Canadian dollars and that it manages remission of taxes to the government. Normally you will receive the majority of profits from this service.
Data management
It is important for you to have access to data charging to better understand the service you offer and to take well informed decisions on how you will make your service evolve. The basic data are: the beginning and end of a session, the exact duration of a session, the revenue generated to the EVSE, the energy used per session.
24/7 Customer Service
It is essential to have a full-time service to serve your EV drivers properly. For instance, this service will enable remote charging access to a customer who lost his card and needs to charge his vehicle.
