Author:
Ally Winning, European Editor, PSD
Date
08/01/2022
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Ally Winning, European Editor, PSD
It’s nice and sunny here in Scotland as I write this, a welcome change from the weather of the last few weeks. We are well and truly into the holiday season and it is good to take some time out. Myself, I had a short visit to one of the Scottish islands. The islands are often quite behind the times when it comes to technology. That was apparent in some cases with no facilities for card transactions in some shops. On the other hand, as renewable energy becomes more popular, the islands here are at the front and centre of this technological wave. That includes both the generation of renewable resources and their use. Maybe the cause of that is the difficulty of connecting islands to the energy grid - I believe Shetland was only connected to the UK grid last month. One thing I did notice however, was that there seemed to be a lot of charging stations for electric vehicles, which makes sense as all fuel for the island has to be shipped in using the ferry services, making it even more expensive than normal.
Charging stations also feature heavily in this month’s magazine, particularly electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), as the Special Report concentrates on electric vehicles and their supporting infrastructure. The first article in the Special Report comes from CUI Inc. In the article, Ron Stull, a Power Product Marketing Engineer at the company, explains how EVSEs work and then has a look at their internal power requirements, before detailing which type of power supply would best fit the needs of the different types of EVSE.
As we move toward a renewable energy dominated power grid, that grid must get smarter, particularly as the number of electric vehicles grow and the burden of charging them increases. Enormous quantities of energy need to be distributed through EVSEs, and that energy must be managed efficiently to ensure the right quantities are available in the right places at the right times. Safety, accurate billing, and security must also be brought into the equation. In our second Special Report feature this month, Sara Ghaemi, the Director of Technical Development at Avnet Abacus tells us how this task might be accomplished while taking into account the requirements of various stakeholders, which include vehicle owners, charge-point operators, and grid operators.
The final article in this month’s Special Report is from NexGen Power Systems. In the article, the company’s Sivaguru Noopuran talks about its unique vertical GaN technology, and how it works in combination with software control and planar magnetics to offer EV manufacturers greater benefits.
As well as the items in the Special report, there will be a selection of general power-based articles in our Technology Focus section and the usual industry news and views. I hope you enjoy!
Best Regards,
Ally Winning
European Editor, PSD
