New Siemens charging column recharges two electric vehicles at the same time

The charging column is perfectly suited for use in public and company parking garages and as a charging point for electric vehicles at locations throughout cities. The charging point can also be used for charging the electric vehicle fleet of car rental companies. Like the Siemens Charge CP700A charging point before it, the new station can recharge electric vehicles in three-phase operation at a current of 32 amperes (A). This is equivalent to an output of 22 kilowatts (kW). Siemens will be launching the new charging column on the European market in the fall of 2011.

The Charge CP500A charging station features two three-phase charging points for recharging two vehicles at the same time. The ports can be equipped with meters for billing the power to the customer. A pre-installed meter board (optional) also makes it possible to install a household power meter for billing the power supplied to the charging infrastructure operator by the power company. A fused terminal box can be incorporated for safe connection of the charging station to the power grid.

On request, Siemens can provide the charging column with an emergency disconnect feature to release the plug in the event of a power failure. This enables the user to safely remove the de-energized three-phase plug and resume charging later. The charging column is protected against vandalism and has an Ethernet interface or an optional GSM/GPRS modem via which the station can be linked up to a control center or a smart-grid network control. In interplay with the Charge CP500A charging point, the Siemens Charge eMosphere software solution makes it possible to test the station's residual-current-operated circuit-breaker for proper functioning from the control center at regular intervals. It also permits remote reset of a tripped-out residual-current-operated circuit-breaker once the fault that caused the response has been rectified.

The Siemens Charge eMosphere software also offers charging station operators a local load management solution for optimizing utilization of their infrastructure. For instance, if more electric power output is demanded than can be supplied at any one time, such as when too many vehicles attempt to charge at the same time at a charging column in a parking garage, charging is interrupted and automatically resumed again later once the vehicles that were connected first have been fully charged. Option two is to divide the available output equally between the connected vehicles.

The charging column bears the CE mark and has been tested by an accredited inspection agency. It satisfies the requirements of the state-of-the-art standards for charging systems, such as IEC/EN 61851-1 and IEC/EN 61851-22, and the low-voltage distribution standards such as EN 61439. The temperature at the sockets and in the column interior is monitored. In the event of a fault or under adverse ambient conditions that might cause overheating, the station automatically interrupts the charging process. Like the CP700A, the new charging column is equipped with a display via which the user guides the charging procedure. Further functions such as user access authorization and subsequent cashless billing via swipe card per various RFID (radio-frequency identification) standards have been retained.

The Siemens portfolio of charging systems for electric vehicles comprises different areas of application and customer groups. The company covers the requirements of public charging stations for parking lots or car parks, high-speed charging as well as for private and home charging.

Components for the infrastructure for recharging electric vehicles are part of Siemens' Environmental Portfolio, with which the company posted revenues amounting to approximately EUR28 billion in fiscal 2010. This makes Siemens the world's largest provider of eco-friendly technology. In the same period, our products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 270 million tons, an amount equal to the total annual CO2 emissions of the megacities Hong Kong, London, New York, Tokyo, Delhi and Singapore.

About the Siemens Energy Sector

The Siemens Energy Sector is the world's leading supplier of a complete spectrum of products, services and solutions for the generation, transmission and distribution of power and for the extraction, conversion and transport of oil and gas. In fiscal 2010 (ended September 30), the Energy Sector had revenues of approximately EUR25.5 billion and received new orders totaling more than EUR30.1 billion and posted a profit of more than EUR3.3 billion. On September 30, 2010, the Energy Sector had a work force of more than 88,000.