Five thoughts on the operation of charging stations!

Compared with new energy vehicle charging stations, there are only 110000 fuel vehicle gas stations in the country, and the number of fuel vehicles is as high as more than 0.3 billion. What we can perceive is that refueling is expensive, but we rarely hear people complain about the difficulty of refueling. It is completely opposite to new energy vehicles. Why do new energy vehicle owners have more energy replenishment points, but they cannot enjoy better energy replenishment services and often worry about the difficulty of charging? As a service provider of new energy vehicle charging stations, what aspects do we need to consider to improve this dilemma?

1. Make full use of big data analysis; Reasonable layout of the geographical location of the station design; Eye-catching station signs

In the preliminary investigation of the station construction, it is necessary to seek big data support, analyze the use of new energy vehicles around the station, road distribution, growth trend of new energy vehicles, existing charging infrastructure and other core data, and reasonably build charging stations that meet the market demand in combination with available land resources, basic resources of power facilities, municipal development policies, etc. The reference fuel station has the characteristics of excellent identifiability, and the charging station shall design a sign with visual impact and identifiability through alliance, which is beneficial for users to find the station.

2. Site information is organically integrated with cloud applications, maps and payment systems

Make full use of network resources and alliance resources, and cooperate with transportation applications, especially map applications (Baidu map, Tencent map, Gaud map), to avoid the situation that station information is off the network and the exposure rate of station is too low. At the same time, it is necessary to pay special attention to the availability of station equipment, and strictly avoid the situation that the equipment cannot work when the customer is present.

3. Choose the right charging pile products

As the core equipment of station operation, choosing the right product is the fundamental factor of station operation. Considering that charging piles belong to the energy infrastructure in the new energy vehicle industry, according to the general characteristics of infrastructure, they are generally faced with large initial investment, long return on investment cycle, close to the government's long-term planning, etc., when selecting specific product solutions, it is recommended Consider from the following aspects:

(1) In view of the challenge of early investment, it is recommended to choose products with group control and group charging and later expansion capacity, so that the investment can be controlled at the initial stage of investment, and then the capacity expansion can be carried out according to market demand when the market is mature;

(2) In view of the challenge of long investment return period, it is recommended to choose products with low operation and maintenance costs in the later stage. The factors to be considered include but are not limited to high device maturity, modularization of main devices, low operating cost, high energy conversion efficiency, strong environmental adaptability, etc. From the analysis of current technological development, charging pile products based on IGBT technology have obvious advantages in these aspects, especially for energy conversion efficiency. Under the same conditions, the conversion rate is 2-3 percentage points higher on average. This part of the energy has changed from the original pure consumption to operating income, which plays a very important role in the overall operation of the station. According to the data of China Charging Alliance in February 2022, the total charging power in the country is about 1.18 billion kWh, which can be increased by 23.6 million kWh according to the minimum 2% conversion efficiency increase;

(3) In view of the long-term planning of the government, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the urban development planning and the potential customers of the station service, so as to provide basic data support for the long-term operation and subsequent expansion of the station construction.

4. Choose the right product provider

The operation of charging stations is a long-term public service, and qualified upstream product providers are an important factor in providing high-quality services. It is recommended to consider core factors such as product development capabilities, project execution capabilities, quality control capabilities, and technical support capabilities of product suppliers. The operation of the charging station is not a one-time construction, and subsequent product upgrade iterations need to be considered. For example, with the emergence of more high energy density and high charging efficiency power batteries, charging equipment needs to be compatible with existing batteries and still have the ability to provide fast charging to these new batteries. With the expansion of station charging endpoints, consideration can be given to "pooling" existing station resources and introducing flexible charging features to provide more users with better energy supplementary services, improve service quality, guarantee investment and make full use of existing resources without increasing the power capacity of the station.

5. Take full advantage of differences in energy rates over time

The most important expense of station operation is the cost of electricity purchase, according to China's electricity policy, the difference in electricity charges at different times is significant. In response to this situation, station operators can consider introducing an overall solution with energy storage and local energy subsystems. According to the deployment location of the station, consider the introduction of solar energy, wind energy and other local energy systems and local energy storage systems, the use of intelligent energy scheduling system, the full use of solar energy, wind energy during the day, night use of trough energy to supplement the energy storage system, so as to achieve a significant reduction in operating costs.

The construction and operation of charging stations are still in the early stage of development. According to the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" issued by the General Office of the State Council, the development goals of new energy vehicles in the future are clarified, and it is proposed that pure electric vehicles will become the mainstream of newly sold vehicles by 2035, and vehicles in the public sector will be fully electrified. According to the design of the best ratio of 3:1, the market space is extremely broad, and the competition in the market is bound to be extremely fierce. To provide customers with a better experience than refueling, to provide customers with more peripheral services, to build a new energy charging service brand, and to establish their own brand image, will be the common thinking of every enterprise ready to enter the market.