INSTALLING THE SAME

[001 ] This invention is about equipment built for charging electric cars on parking

areas and the method to accomplish the installation.

[002] The invention in this application is related to a previous application FI20155813 that is referred to in this document. This application claims priority from the previous one.

[003] When installing a charging system to a large parking area it is usually enough to install the charging devices to just a few parking spaces. It is, however, sensible to build the cabling so that it covers preferably all the parking spaces from the beginning. Especially in the case of buried cables it is most cost efficient to dig them all at once.

[004] One solution is to connect the cabling to a quick connector, in which case the charging devices can easily be installed later. In this case the cabling can be built in full so that if a need for more charging devices should arise the devices can be installed using the quick connectors.

[005] The goal of the invention is to create a system that is more flexible than the prior one. The system enables electrifying the parking area so that the system is easily expandable and can later be modified.

[006] The goal can be achieved using the system in accordance with patent claim 1 for electricity supply for parking spaces, said system comprising the cabling to provide electricity for the connector equipment for later installation of charging or heating devices. Each connector device contains a memory device, whose data can be transferred to the device that will later be installed. This enables installing the charging devices temporarily to the installed quick connectors, testing the cabling and, if necessary, examining its topology and measuring the cabling and then saving the results to a local or to a cloud server within the system. Next, the information needed in the installation can either be stored in the memory devices in connection to the quick connector or to the server database based on the serial number stored on the memory device, for example. After this the temporary installation can be disassembled and equip the quick connectors with cover caps.

[007] If a need to add more charging devices to the system or replacing the existing devices with different or new ones for maintenance reasons should later arise, it is enough to connect the new device to the quick connector which causes the charging device to read the quick connector's serial number and possibly other installation information from the quick connector's memory device. This way it is easy introduce new charging device because its cabling position and the fuse group that it loads is already known. It is also much easier to monitor the condition of the cabling when the order of the charging devices is known along a certain cabling branch. This being the case, each time a new charging device contacts the server in the system, the location and the identity of the charging device is known.

[008] The electric power supply system applicable for charging electric vehicles in this invention covers charging devices or power supplies that provide the electricity for the actual charging devices. The power supplies contain energy measurement devices to measure consumption, the means for identifying the user of electricity for invoicing and the means for sending the electricity consumption reports to the server over the telecommunication network. The power supply is configured so that it can be connected to the quick connector which in turn is connected to the cabling. The cabling has been designed so that it can feed several different power supplies. The power supplies contain equipment to control the load dynamically to prevent overloading and to enable the efficient use of the electricity connection. The quick connector still operates with a memory device that contains the information to configure the power supply, the information which the power supply can subsequently read.

[009] If the memory device of the quick connector contains a safety processor or another way to prevent falsifying or copying information, the power supply can be installed to a new location so that the system can identify the electricity connection and its owner with certainty, from whom to buy the electricity to be sold. This in turn enables the owner of the electricity connection or the party that offers the charging service to be able to just install the quick connector. A charging device possessor or lessee can then bring the device, connect it to the quick connector, and the cloud service providing the charging service can reimburse the owner of the electricity connection and charge the possessor or the user of the charging device for the electricity used.

[0010] At the same time we can enable replacing the charging devices with more

efficient ones later even by the users of the parking area themselves. We can start, for example, by introducing a few single-phase charging devices, and add three- phase charging devices later, as long as the power feed can reasonably handle more efficient charging devices.

[0011 ] It is noteworthy that an electric vehicle typically uses the maximum of 200

Wh/km, in which case one would need 2 kW of charging power for 10 hours or 20 kW for an hour to be able to drive a single electric car for 100 km. Even if the charging power would grow the total amount of energy required by a certain vehicle or its medium power would not change unless the car is driven more. Typically any single car is driven less than a 100 km a day and the cars are parked at least 10 hours, in which case the 2 kW planned medium power per charging point would be quite sufficient. If there are many parking spaces, a greater maximum power in a single charging device will free up more capacity for other cars sooner. On the other hand, a fairly slow charging at home or at the work place is usually adequate, since the cars are usually parked 10 - 20 hours a day. The control system of the charging service can be centralized so that each user can purchase electricity from several charging devices by using, for example, an RFID in the charging cable. A centralized system can also time and optimize electricity consumption from the entire electricity network point of view which enables buying electricity when it is at its cheapest.

[0012] The information security of the charging devices has been organized

advantageously by using public key encryption and digital signature so that the identity of the charging devices can be assured independently of the quick connector they have been installed to. This way the charging device can be moved from one place to another without making changes to the setup of the charging device, since the charging device reads the new configuration data in its new installation location. The system server will get the information of the transfer nonetheless.

[0013] The cabling can be measured by temporarily connecting a measurement unit or for example a charging device with an accurate power meter capable to measure for example voltage drop accurately enough to ensure the cabling quality and the topology information of the cabling. After the measuring, the configuration data of each meter or charging device is stored in the system. The information can either be stored in the server database using the serial number of the quick connector or the data can be stored within the quick connector in which case the information can be accessed even without network connection. This way, only the necessary amount of devices can be left to the installation and the rest can be removed. A protective shield or casing can be installed to cover the connectors of the removed devices.

[0014] The connectors may include not only the contacts supplying the mains current but also a common DC voltage supply for the control electronics. There can be also other electronics combined with the quick connector, a relay contactor, or a transformer to measure a chained supply cable current, for example. The memory device can not only be a wired data interface, such as a single-wire circuit, but also wireless, such as an NFC-ID or an optical one to which all data can be written. The memory device can be used to store the serial number of the meter or connector device in question, in which case the actual data for configuring is obtained from the server based on the serial number. Using this system the serial number can even be hard coded when producing the connector device or the serial number can be coded in connection with the installation so that a part of the serial number contains the installation location and the identity of the quick connector itself in the installation in question. The memory device can also record information about the network connection pertaining the installation location. The memory device can also be optical, a bar code or a 2D barcode for example, in which case the code can be read at the installation site for example by the installer using a mobile phone. It can then be stored in the charging device cost efficiently using for example the NFC of the charging device.

[0015] In the northern cold areas it is fairly common that the parking areas already have their own heating outlets for pre-heating the engine, in which case it is possible to use the existing cabling to set up the electric car charging system. To be able to use the existing capacity in full, the topology of the cabling must be known at least to the extent which particular fuse or fuses and which phase each charging device is connected to. Based on this information the electricity can be distributed to the users either by asking the charging device to restrict the power or by turning off the equipment in turns if there is a risk of overloading the cabling or the electricity connection. Because adding a data cable to an existing cabling is usually too laborious or expensive, wireless data transmission needs to be used. The other option is to use the electric network cabling also for data transmission.

[0016] Different installation locations can have various different networks - even in the same location there can be equipment connected to Ethernet and to WLAN, or a few different networks that are tied to the mobile service provider. This is why a new device may need to try several different ways to connect to the system server. The server then provides the final configuration for the device based on its location identification data.

[0017] It is possible to use, for example, the naming convention of the WLAN access point, based on which the new device recognizes the network as potentially the network of the system in question. The charging device can contain authentication keys that can be used when signing data concerning sales of electricity. The charging device can be identified based on this data. The location of the charging device can be identified using the information written on the quick connector's memory device. If the charging device first contacts a server that controls the neighboring parking area, the data of the appropriate network data can be obtained from the central server for the charging device in question.

[0018] In the following the invention is described referring to the attached illustrations.

[0019] Fig. 1 A schematic illustration of the quick connector casing and of the charging device with its basic parts.

[0020] Fig 2 describes an implementation where connector and device boxes can be installed successively.

[0021 ]

[0022] Fig. 1 portrays the connection box 1 and connected to it, the device box 2. The connector of the device box 11 can be connected to the device box connector 21 . The device box contains sockets 25, where the engine heater or the electric car's charging cable can be plugged. Optionally, the charging device may contain a fixed charging cable for electric cars.

[0023] In Fig 1 , the different options for installing the memory means have been

referred to by 13.1 , 13.2 and 13.3. With the identification devices, the device box or/and the system to which the device box has been connected to, can be told where the device box is located together with the information about the electricity connection and the phase and/or the fuse the charging device has been connected to. This way the electricity sold through the charging device can be reimbursed to the appropriate electricity connection owner and the charging devices can cooperate so that the electric supply fuses will not be overloaded.

[0024] The authentication means can be, for example, a serial bus memory (13.2), such as a single-wire type of a memory circuit or a more complicated memory device including a wired or a wireless memory device with a safety processor, an NFC-memory 13.3., or also an NFC-tag, a barcode or a 2D code 13.1 , which the installer reads in connection with the installation using a separate device, such as a mobile phone or a tablet. In the latter scenario, the 2D code can be read to the permanent memory of the charging device using, for example, an NFC-reader. The safety processor can be used to sign the saved data, preferably using challenge- response methods, when even copying the data will be noticed. Producing just a signature by using an asymmetrical encryption enables reading the data in plain language and certified. If that is the case, the charging device can read the plain language data and use it to form a connection with the cloud service, which in turn can certify the data with the challenge-response method. This way the server of the cloud service can certify not only the charging device and its user's ID but also the quick connector to which the charging device is connected to. This enables moving the charging device temporarily to a different parking area, in which case the data of the new quick connector reveals whose electricity connection the charging device is connected to and whether it is allowed or able to operate in its new quick connector. This enables creating a system that allows the charging device accompanied with the electricity measuring unit to be moved to a new quick connector during a visit, for example. The charging device contacts the cloud service of the charging service infrastructure and the cloud service allows the charging device to operate in the new location if electricity can be purchased from the electricity connection owner and then offered to be used. In the above scenario, the charging device could contain mobile data access, which would always enable the data connection to the cloud service. The charging device can then contact the data network of the new location if necessary, or the cloud server can control the visiting charging device, if the quick connector is located so that does not have a local WLAN or another type of data connection.

5] The device box of the charging device can be installed prior to the reading of the authentication devices and data input. For example, the bar code or the 2D bar code can be read with a mobile phone and the information read can then be given to the device box or the system the device box is connected to. In the latter scenario the mobile phone would read the connection box code or the location code together with the device box code, which are both sent to the system server. It must, however, be clear, who and using which equipment is entitled to modify the data.

[0026] The reading of the configuration data using a mobile phone or a tablet and

entering the data directly to the system requires identifying both the application running on the mobile phone and its user so that the information of the installations can only be modified by certain people using certain equipment. This is why using the bar codes or mobile equipment cannot be allowed without identifying the user.

[0027] The charging device itself may include authentication implemented with strong encryption that is difficult to falsify. Also the users buying the electricity from the device can be identified with an encrypted NFC-ID, for example. In case the data transfer tools of the charging device itself are used to read the quick connector data using the installers mobile equipment, for example, it is easiest to use the NFC-ID to certify the installer's identification and mobile equipment. The system can simultaneously ensure that installer is located in the vicinity of the charging device. The charging device either reads the quick connector's data itself cost efficiently, or the data is entered to the system by the installer using the charging device.

[0028] If the installer could input either the code of the quick connector or the charging device directly to the system using mobile network there could potentially be a risk of an error situation or deliberate tampering. It could be possible to change the settings of several remote charging devices. The charging device can, however, use the network connection provided by the mobile equipment to contact the rest of the system because the authentication of the charging device ensures that the installer's mobile equipment cannot tamper with the data transfer between the charging device and the core system. In this case the data security of the installer's mobile equipment or the WLAN is not critical. The installer can, for example, read the 2D barcode of the NFC-ID of the quick connector and upload them to the charging device's NFC or similar ID reader. After this, the charging device can use the installer's mobile network connection.

[0029] The information in the authentication device can be just a plain serial number.

The serial number can be used as a search key that is used to obtain the connector box data from the database. The device box can initiate the database search by connecting to the system using, for example, a wireless mobile network, WLAN, or X.10 connection or a later data transfer system using electric wiring. The previously mentioned enables the electrician who installs the terminal boxes to either install pre-programmed memory devices, program them with the necessary information or record the serial numbers of the installed equipment to the database for later use. This way the installer does not necessarily need to do anything else but to connect the device box to the quick connectors and to mechanically attach the device box in connection with the terminal box, and the charging device will read the information it requires from the quick connector's memory device. This way all work that requires professional skills or configuration can be done prior to the installation of the device box.

[0030] The above mentioned enables installing switch boxes that cost less than device boxes. These can be installed even before it is known how many device boxes are required in total. It is also possible, if so desired, to install or change the device box to a different one by the end user or by maintenance personnel without the need for electric installations subject to authorization or difficult programming. Also this makes it possible to transfer the device box of the charging device to another location and updating the electricity connection data automatically or at least very easily. The charging device can be switched to another quick connector and it can be easily replaced.

[0031 ] Another way to implement the system is that the device box contains a terminal box equipped with connectors to enable attaching device boxes to each other as a chain or a row according to Fig. 2. Using this technique, it is possible to build a tower containing several boxes 2 or the boxes can alternatively be installed horizontally. In this implementation the terminal box 2.1 would share the same physical casing with the device box. This enables, for example, building a four device box tower in the middle of four parking spaces so that the socket of each device box faces its own parking space. The device boxes that would be installed as a tower could be cylinder-shaped so that they are visually uniform and pleasant.

[0032] The previously described chained or parallel device boxes can be individually installed to face different directions or the different positions for the sockets 25 within the device boxes can be used, or the direction of the entire box 2 can be changed. The terminal box connector, for example, can enable several different positions and the connector element direction in the terminal box could be changed. In case there would be a four device box tower installed on the area between two rows of parking spaces so that there would be four parking slots in four directions seen from the device boxes, the boxes on top of each other would each face different direction, that is, their respective parking space. They could each have a 90 degree angle or should the parking spaces be in parallel, the angles could be smaller than those where spaces are opposite each other. If the boxes are connected to each other horizontally the most cost efficient way to build them is to install them so that they face at least two opposite directions, in which case they can cover two opposite rows of parking spaces. Naturally, the angle between the device boxes can be chosen fairly freely. In this implementation, the quick connector of the stand would contain the memory devices and additionally each device in the stack would contain a memory device of the device above. In an alternative implementation all devices would share the same memory, in which case the system would still recognize the device stand and the number of devices in the stack even though their order in the stack might not be clear.

[0033] Figure 3 describes an implementation in which a module including the socket 22 within the device box can further connect itself to the internal electronics and electricity connections of the device box using a quick connector 2.1 . In this implementation, the socket itself 25 is interchangeable or it can be installed later. In case the electronics of the device box is protected so that opening the box will not cause a risk of an electric shock, it is also possible to install the socket and its electronics without the help of an electrician. This way, an electrician is only required to install the terminal boxes 1 that are connected to the parking area's cabling and the terminal boxes' quick connectors and cabling. After this the device boxes themselves can be installed by maintenance personnel or even by the end user. Each socket could also be an individual electric shock protected unit within the device box. The sockets could form the connection to the connectors within the device box so that the sockets could be installed or changed without the need to do any electric work.

[0034] If there is a need to update the elements within the device box, the device box can be detached from the terminal box, after which the internal installations of the device box can be done without electric power. The device box can also be changed to a fully equipped one.

[0035] A terminal box that is mountable to a wall or a stand can include the equipment to attach one or more device boxes for charging devices. For example, it is possible to connect one or two back-to-back device boxes to a single terminal box so that the connectors with the connecting elements are located at the back of the box which enables connecting one or two device boxes. This way the connectors of the two device boxes hit the edges of the terminal box and in case there is only one device box only one of connectors is used so that the remaining terminal box connector remains unused and hidden beneath the device box.

[0036] A quick connector's terminal box according to the invention can use connector types already in the market. Additionally the quick connector casing may have a lid that protects it from the weather prior to the device box installation. The lid may naturally be a hinged flap. The terminal box may also combine electronics, such as a wireless network, memory device, data connection using electrical wiring, earth leakage protection or a relay. The most cost efficient way is to use a simple and low-priced terminal box. The terminal box can, however, include functional electronics required in most installations. If, for example, only a part of the cabled parking area is equipped with electric car charging devices with energy

consumption measuring, the rest of the parking area can be equipped with a simplified model for heating purposes with maybe just a clock and an automatic fuse that limits the power accompanied with the earth leakage protection. In this case, it is most cost efficient to install the earth leakage protection to each quick connector.

[0037] In an implementation it can be possible to choose the phase of the electric

supply either in the terminal box or in the device box. The choice can be made by using switchable connectors, switches, jumpers etc. If the device box is used with a single-phase current, the termination box can be used to connect only one phase for each device box.

[0038] The electronics of a device box can be interchangeable or installable as a

module, in which case the modules could include, for example, a socket, electricity consumption measuring, residual-current circuit breaker, a relay, electronics for assisting charging an electric car or a data connection.

[0039] According to an embodiment the outer layer of the device box is insulation

material which does not stop radio waves from progressing and the module to be installed within the device box includes a socket that is controlled over the radio network, possibly together with electricity measuring unit and/or residual-current circuit breaker. In this connection the radio network can also be a mobile network such as GPRS, 3G or 4G data connection or a local network such as WLAN or a locally operated data connection that operates on a frequency of 433 MHz, for measuring and/or remote control. The module can also contain user interface and/or an NFC-reader for identifying the user.