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Charge Star Strata2020-04-16T18:24:09+08:00

BILLING SYSTEMS FOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CHARGING STATIONS

Charging Station Access Control, Metering Systems and Billing Solutions for Public and Private Car Parks

The increasing popularity of electric vehicles has led to a demand for electric vehicle charging stations in car parks and a payment solution for billing the drivers. The Charge Star and Cosmos billing platforms are provided by E-Station as part of a comprehensive managed service covering all aspects of charging station network management including supply, installation, operation and maintenance.

Charging station installation scenario. What factors have to be considered when choosing an electric vehicle charging station solution for large scale apartment developments?

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PUBLIC CHARGING STATIONS: – PAY AS YOU GO – CHARGE STAR PLATFORM

Charge Star Billing is a charging station management and billing solution for electric vehicle charging stations located in car parks where payment is required upfront.

Charge Star provides operators of public charging station networks a billing system offering class leading features such as revenue reporting, multiple payment methods, payment direct to the network operator’s merchandising account, charging session activation via smart phone app or RFID card, usage reporting, status reporting, and remote management of charging stations. Charge Star is designed for high volume pay as you go public charging stations networks used by anonymously members of the public.

Charging session activation is via the NEXTCHARGE smart phone app or NEXTCHARGE RFID card: https://www.chargestar.com.au/nextcharge/

Charging session activation via the NEXTCHARGE smart phone app or NEXTCHARGE RFID card is necessary because most charging station manufacturers have not yet integrated credit card readers with charging stations. Two way communication is required between a credit card reader and the charging station in the event that a problem occurs during the charging session or the driver simply stops the charging session from the car and drives off. The existing retrofit credit card solutions are unidirectional only and do not register termination of a charging session signaled by the station. The driver gets a free charge. Integration of credit card readers with charging stations requires modification of the charging system operating system and cooperation from the charging station vendor. This is not possible with a retrofitted credit card reader.

Charge Star is compatible with all charging stations using OCPP 1.5 and above.

Features:

  • Connected to the Charge Star Network: http://old.e-station.com.au/chargestar/
  • Charging sessions activated by the NEXTCHARGE smart phone application.
  • Driver pays separately for each charging session.
  • Charge Star collects the revenue and reimburses the charging station provider at agreed intervals.
  • Expensive solution for single user non-public charging stations in term of credit card transaction costs and other transaction charges.

COST: $290 + GST per station inclusive of all connectors on the station.

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PRIVATE CHARGING STATIONS: – INVOICE IN ARREARS – COSMOS PLATFORM:

COSMOS is a billing solution and access control system for charging stations located in private strata and body corporate car parks.

COSMOS is an embedded network billing system designed to generate invoices for charging station operators who provide charging stations located in controlled parking areas of the kind commonly associated with residential apartment and commercial office developments.

Common area car parking in strata and body corporate car parks presents a number of problems for electric vehicle car owners.

  • Most common area car parks do not have electric vehicle car charging facilities. Electric vehicle car charging stations can be retrofitted to common area car parks. This normally requires a change to the strata by-laws as the walls of common area car parks and the embedded wiring are normally owned by the strata rather than the owners.
  • Free charging from common area power is likely to raise the ire of unit owners who do not wish to subsidise another owner who just happens to have an electric car. Electric vehicle car charging can cost $1000 per vehicle per year.
  • There needs to be a system in place to meter electric vehicle charging and bill electric vehicle owners accordingly.
  • Access to charging stations needs to be restricted to prevent charging stations being used by non-authorised users.

Generally speaking, most body corporates are putting the charging stations in visitor car parking bays until such time as the owners request charging stations for their own parking bays. Stations in visitor car parking bays are essentially public charging stations as the drivers cannot be identified. These stations need to be connected to a pay as you go billing system such as the Charge Star platform described above. Private charging stations which are installed in designated car parking bays assigned to individual drivers can be locked down to one driver using RFID card access. These stations can be connected to an invoicing billing system. The drivers are billed in arrears.

Features:

  • Connected to the Cosmos Billing System: https://www.e-station.com.au/cosmos_billing/
  • Billed in arrears by invoice.
  • Charging sessions activated by RFID card.
  • Driver pays every month.
  • Invoices:
    • Generated by Cosmos, branded with strata company livery and sent to the driver who pays the strata management company.
    • Alternatively, the strata management company can download a CSV file which can be uploaded to software packages such as StrataMax, StrataMaster or PropertyIQ for invoice generation and billing.
  • Cheaper solution for single user charging stations as there are no credit card or payment system transaction costs.

COST:

  • Circontrol Charging Stations: $60 per year per connector
  • Non-Circontrol charging stations: $120 per year per connector

DOCUMENTATION: DataSheet – cosmos-Datasheet.pdf

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Commercial Opportunities

  • Each state has introduced provisions in the relevant electricity retailers act that allow stratas and body corporates to resell power.
  • Car park providers can generate income by selling power to car park users, apartment owners and tenants.

E-STATION eVolve - More Information Here

The eVolve is a networkable charging station designed for commercial installations which require metering, access control and driver management services. Access control is via MiFare classic compatible RFID cards and the Next Charge Smart Phone App. The stations are equipped with onboard ethernet ports and 3G modems. The stations can be connected to the customer’s network and managed using the free network and driver management software provided by Circontrol. Alternatively the stations can connected to the Charge Star network and managed by E-Station.

The eVolve is a Type 2 wall mounted station rated up to 7 kW single phase and 22 kW three phase. The eVolve is fully compatible with all pure electric and hybrid cars.

  • quality product manufactured by Circontrol in Spain.
  • designed for indoor and outdoor use.
  • single phase or three phase compatible.
  • easy installation by any qualified electrician.
  • rated to 7 kW per socket single phase and 22 kW per socket three phase.
  • start charging process only after safety verification.
  • safety cutoff. Car cannot move while connected to the station.
  • auto power shut‐off upon plug‐out detection.
  • communicates with car via pilot signal.
  • compliant with Australian and international standards.
  • robust high-impact ABS and aluminium enclosure.
  • can be wall mounted or bollard mounted.
  • fully compatible with all electric cars and hybrids.
  • comes with onboard TCP/IP networking module and GPRS/3G modem.
  • OCPP compliant.