Standalone or networked electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) to detect and stop arcing before it becomes dangerous

• Main Authors: Leidy, Matthew, Haas, Harry Price, Johnson, Elton C, King, Jr., William A
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 16.04.2024
• Subjects: CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTINGELECTRIC POWER; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT OR PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLEDVEHICLES; ELECTRICITY; ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES, IN GENERAL; GENERATION; MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL

An electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) is provided with an integrated arc fault detection circuit interruption (AFCI) device to supply electricity to an electric vehicle (EV) being a load. The EVSE comprises a coupler and an AFCI device including: a controller including a processor and a memory, circuitry and computer-readable firmware code stored in the memory which, when executed by the processor, causes the controller to: detect an arcing level of arcing between the coupler and a charge port of the EV or any other series or parallel arcing within the EVSE, compare the arcing level to a threshold level to determine a hazardous nature of arching, and analyze the arcing level to determine not only if it is currently hazardous but if it is likely to become hazardous in a near term and recommend repair or replacement of the coupler and the charge port before damage occurs.