What is overload protection?
Cascade Overload Protection is an extension to our current Overload Protection.
By setting an extra threshold on the measured circuit of secondary distribution panels, Cascade Overload Protection can reduce the charging speed of the charging stations connected to make sure the demand does not exceed the secondary panel capacity al while still offering the main Overload Protection on the main breaker.
Requirements:
- GRID measurement.
- Circuit measurement.
- Smappee charging stations connected. (no other brands are compatible)
- Maximum amperage value configured of main fuse and all secondary breaker panels.
- Setup of measurement hierarchy correctly done on Smappee Dashboard.
- Very important that you check that the phase mapping is correct for all measurements. This is critical!
Multi-Gateway setups are optional but supported. In that case the Cascade Overload Protection is configured on the Multi-Gateway parent.
All configuration is done via the Smappee Dashboard at Dashboard.smappee.net
For more information about how to set this up please see here.
What is the impact of Cascade Overload Protection?
Please find below an example of how Cascade Overload Protection will positively impact the installation. Please note that:
- The GRID (main fuse) is limited to 63A max.
- The secondary panel of the charging square is limited to 16A max.
- There is 1 evbase connected on the main distribution board.
- There are 3 EVwall Business connected on the secondary distribution board.
Visual representation:
In the example below, the blue colour is the EVbase, connected directly underneath the GRID. The turquoise and green colours are two of the three EVwall Businesses managed by the secondary distribution panel. Notice that the EVbase charges all the time at full speed. An EV with a 11kW inverter was connected at this time so it charges at 16A per phase.
Just before the EVbase session starts, one of the EV walls is used and also starts charging at 16A on a single phase. This session continues until 8 o'clock, but then a second session is started on one of the two other EVwall units. As this second session would go over the limit of 16A for the fuse of the secondary distribution panel, Cascade Overload Protection kicks in and limits both of the charging sessions to 8A. When the first charging session ends a bit after 9 o'clock, the second charging session then gets all available 16A to continue charging.
Without Cascade Overload Protection, starting the second charging session on the EVwall would have catastrophic consequences. The demand for all three charging sessions does not pass the maximum Amperage of 63A for the GRID (16+16+32), however the two 16A charging sessions on the secondary distribution panel would have well exceeded the maximum Amperage of 16A for the secondary distribution panel. Only a correct Cascade Overload Protection configuration can take this into account and will dynamically manage the different charging sessions.