Over-voltage mains supply problem causing Smart Charger to trip out

[emmrecs]

There are a number of posts to this forum where users have commented on or asked for advice on "problems" encountered with their Home Smart Charger. Some of these have been specific to named makes, amongst which are Rolec.

I have a Rolec EVHS2020-PEN 7.2kW unit, installed as soon as the car was ordered - I'm due to collect the car next Monday - in order to ensure I benefitted from the (now removed) government grant. So far, so good.

The installation was done by Greenvoltz, whose workmanship and after-sales service has been outstanding!

However, from the first day after installation I have been receiving quite regular messages from my EV Charging app that the charger was "Offline" and needed to be rebooted, a comparatively simple operation; simply turn it off at its isolator, wait 30 seconds and then turn it on again, but definitely not ideal if the charger is to be used as intended.

Julian and Darren from Greenvoltz have been in regular contact with Rolec and EV Charging (the company behind the app) along with coming back to my house on several occasions - as I said, outstanding service. Rolec suggested various "modifications", including reorienting the internal aerial (it connects via mobile phone signal), fitting a new modem, fitting an external booster antenna, fitting a new SIM card to the modem, none of which solved the problem. There was even a suggestion from both Rolec and EV Charging that the problem might be that one or more of the main mobile phone networks was "blocking" the signal from the SIM card, so experiments were done (by EV Charging) to "turn off" the connection via, in turn, each of the mobile phone networks, but no success!

Finally, by means of a phone conversation between Julian (Greenvoltz) and a senior technical guy at Rolec the reason was found: an over-voltage on the incoming mains supply to my house was causing the PEN unit to activate and turn the whole unit off! When measured that day, the incoming voltage was up to just over 256 volts; the PEN unit is designed to activate at 253 volts (and cannot be adjusted, apparently).

My DNO (Western Power Distribution) was then contacted as a matter of urgency and the same day I was visited by one of their engineers who measured the voltage at that instant at 249 volts. (Apparently, their statutory obligation is to provide a voltage range of not less than 216 and not more than 253 so, as of his visit, everything was "within parameters".) However, he did say that it was quite possible that, since it was a sunny day, if there were a number of houses around mine that had solar panels, that their "feed-in" was actually sending the voltage over its official limit! He also said he would arrange for a "squirrel" to be fitted to my meter to monitor actual incoming voltage over a period of time. (As of now, I am still waiting for the squirrel to arrive! I know Julian (Greenvoltz) is regularly phoning Western Power to "persuade" them to get on and fit this unit.)

So, I don't know whether any other user has experienced this over-voltage problem but if you have a Smart Charger which is prone to going offline without warning or obvious reason, you might want to ask your DNO to check the incoming voltage to your house.

 

[5teep]

It's pretty common for the voltage in the Highlands to exceed 250v so this could be useful info for anyone contemplating a Rolec.

 

[Alb]

That's certainly unusually high.
Standard voltage is 230V but the tolerance is asymmetric ( -6/+10%)

 

[5teep]

Should add that the standard voltage in the highlands is much higher than 230v, something to do with hydro power generation?

 

[emmrecs]

Just to slightly update this thread:

Western Power engineer visited today to fit a "squirrel" monitor. It measures and records all incoming voltage levels and fluctuations for 7 days. It will then be removed for the DNO to download the data and review what is happening. If the results show as reasonably consistently too high, apparently the voltage can be "regulated" at whichever substation actually feeds my house.

The engineer checked the voltage before he started the install, it was 254 so "officially" too high! At least they have now seen that the issue raised by my charger installer is "real".

I collect my car this coming Friday afternoon (not next Monday as I wrote before) so it will be interesting to see what happens.

I will update this thread further as anything more is discovered!

 

[Ozzie1989]

The problem you are facing is quite common actually. Your electrician would have tested it on fitting day but, a bit like WP, may not catch it at the right time to identify it.

One thing's for sure, WP are very good at sorting it once they know about it.

We had an issue on one of our sites where the voltage kept dipping below 215 and thus the generator kept kicking in and taking over. To prevent rapid switching, the mains voltage has to stay stable for at least 10 minutes (unless manually overriden) before it will switch back and after a few more minutes shut back down.

WP found a faulty transformer and had it sorted a week or so later.

 

[Alb]

It may just need a simple tap change.

 

[EVsince2016]

I was told by a SSE Engineer that when solar kicks in, there's a big power surges that trips even 33kv contacts. He said the grid isn't fit for purpose anymore as it was designed for steady power stations & not variable renewable supplies.

Sounds like some investment is needed!

 

[Alb]

I'd suggest this engineer is in need of some CPD.

 

[EVsince2016]

I'd suggest this engineer is in need of some CPD.

Lets say I didn't agree with his analogy

 

[Fluffykins]

Had the opposite issue, way back in the late 1970s/early 80s. The company for whom I worked had their factory amongst a significantly residential area of Luton. We had a period of regular issues with our test gear.

In the end, the problem was resolved to our mains incomer voltage dropping - even to less than 200V on occasions. I think the record was 196V.

<Smug mode> Few problems with the instrumentation we actually made though: that had a superb tolerance to supply variations.</Smug mode>

Several whinges to the power company later we had the supply reconfigured and all was well.

 

[emmrecs]

Further Update:

The squirrel was removed yesterday (at the time of removal voltage was measured by WP engineers at 258) and taken away to have its data read.

Later yesterday they returned to refit the squirrel and to visit the local substation to attempt "adjustments". So they are now monitoring the supply level again to check whether the adjustments have made any difference!

Thankfully, since I now have the car and therefore need to use the charger, the PEN has not tripped out during the hours of darkness.

 

[Deleted member 7316]

Where do you sit in terms of supply cabling?

We had a farm as a customer who was at the end of a long run of overhead cabling who had been having "brownout" issues (low voltage).

Because of that we had fitted a UPS on the computers and it would frequently switch on to lift the incoming voltage.

The power company eventually lifted the median of the incoming voltage to stop the brownouts but the UPS was still beeping quite regularly. Checking the logs it showed that it was being triggered by overvolt periods instead.

Eventually the power company put in a pole mount stepdown transformer a little way up the line.

 

[Les burrows]

Had this experience when my Zappi charge unit was fitted in January 21, the installer came back to check it out and they then contacted the DNO who came the same day and found a reading of 257 volts and a couple of days later they inform quite a few of my neighbourhood the power would be turn off for around 30 minutes while they did something in the sub station near by, its been fine since
Les

 

[EVsince2016]

Just checked on Eddi and it gives a voltage max of 266.4V & min of 32.9V. That's a wide range for the last year!

 

[Les burrows]

Just checked on Eddi and it gives a voltage max of 266.4V & min of 32.9V. That's a wide range for the last year!

I might but the Eddie which controls your hot water which may have a wider range due to most probably drawing much less currant around 3kw than an EV charge point at 7kw as I said I not sure on this.
Les

 

[okohll]

Just another experience on this topic - I've had voltages fluctuating up to 253V ever since I've had the car and charger, since March, so every now and again the charger refuses to work.

Today I noticed the voltage went up to 254V, over the 10% upper limit, so emailed my operator (found from https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-network-operator). They phoned back immediately and sent someone out about an hour later, who checked my supply and my neighbours, then found that one of the stations is out locally, the other one was working double hard and needed some adjustment.

So now just a little while later I have normal voltages, 239 at the moment and can charge the car! (the charger's been basically out since yesterday).

 

[Les burrows]

ok this subject as been floating around for a while now
So back at #14 I wrote about my issue with high voltage and my Zappi tripping out until the DNO reduced the voltage in my local sub station it as been fine since.
Now the Zappi normal delivers around 7- 7.2KWs when charging my MG5 or my wife’s MG4 and I have never seen it any high than that, but last weekend my son and his wife came home for a few days in his Tesla Model Y and plugged into my Zappi to charge and the Zappi was saying 8-8.2kw was being delivered to the car, now in the Tesla App you get a voltage reading and it showed this at around 253volts he then reduced the Amps I think it was in the Tesla app which reduced the Zappi output to about 6.4 kw don’t really understand why.
So is it because the Tesla as a bigger onboard charger 11kw or more where the MGs are only about 6.5. Or is the Zappi able to pump out more than 7 kw I’m on a single phased loop supply.
Les

 

[5teep]

It will be yes, because no ~7kw onboard charger is going to take any more than that whereas the 11kw can take as much as the single phase can supply.