Advanced Power Electronics to Enable Fast Charging While Avoiding Grid Upgrades
Enabling Widespread Fast Charging While Avoiding Grid Upgrades
Intertie Incorporated
Recipient
Sausalito, CA
Recipient Location
2nd
Senate District
12th
Assembly District
$1,800,150
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
In 2024, Intertie finished the project, successfully demonstrating fast charging with a real-world EV while avoiding grid upgrades. The project developed technology that combined hardware, firmware, and software in a power electronic module that supplied 150 kilowatts of power to a charging station with only a 100-amp connection to the building panel. This is significant because commercial building electric panels typically have 100 amps of spare capacity. The system eliminated grid impacts by decoupling the charging process from the grid and connecting directly to the direct current side of a solar-plus-storage microgrid. The project’s microgrid featured 186 kilowatt-hours of battery storage, 80 kilowatts of solar, and a 30-kilowatt grid-tied bidirectional power converter. Using this configuration, 20 charging sessions were successfully initiated and completed using Intertie’s charging application on an iPhone. The electric vehicles that were charged and the maximum charging power in kilowatts with each were: Chevy Bolt – 55; Tesla Model Y – 130, Tesla Model X – 140 and BMW I4 – 150.
The project conducted a product/market fit assessment of 12 commercial properties including convenience stores, gas stations, and quick service restaurants, and found that none of the sites could support a conventional 150 kW fast charger, but all had 100 amps of spare capacity.
The Issue
Most commercially available fast chargers connect directly to the grid and have high power requirements. Ultra-fast charging, which can be defined as greater than 100kW, exacerbates this problem, requires more costly electric upgrades, and has higher operating costs due to high demand charges. This barrier makes it difficult and cost-prohibitive to install fast chargers where they would be most convenient for drivers, such as gas stations, multi-unit dwellings, and commercial properties. Without this charging infrastructure in place, EV ownership can be inconvenient and economically unsuitable for many California residents, which could severely inhibit the state’s rate of EV adoption.
Project Innovation
Intertie’s EV ChargePod™ overcomes the key barrier of costly electric infrastructure upgrades for ultra-fast charging by decoupling the charger from the AC grid. This is a productized DC microgrid that connects a fast charger, energy storage, and grid-tied bidirectional AC/DC converter sized to available grid capacity. Furthermore, adding DC-coupled distributed solar to the microgrid improves the economics and resilience of the ultra-fast charging process. The project seeks to develop a commercially available ultra-fast charger that supplies high power to electric vehicles via a low amp grid connection that can be deployed quickly at almost any location.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
ntertie’s EV ChargePod technology maximizes electric reliability for ratepayers through its ability to offer superfast charging without placing additional strain on the grid and function as a source of backup power in times of grid outages. It also provides value to a site by being able to reduce electric costs from behind-the-meter applications such as peak shaving and demand charge reduction while also providing value to the grid from services such as demand response and resource adequacy. The product’s ability to be installed in any location without requiring grid upgrades significantly lowers costs for ratepayers as it will defer expensive utility upgrades.
Affordability
This project reduces the need for electrical upgrades to enable fast charging.
Reliability
The technology can support DC fast charging of EVs without putting strain on the grid and can serve as a source of backup power in the event of a grid outage.
Key Project Members
Richard Mrlik
Subrecipients
Stafl Systems, LLC
Fabcon, Inc.
Thermocline Labs Inc.
California Mobility Center
