Russelectric, a manufacturer of distributed energy and microgrid control systems for mission-critical commercial facilities that was acquired by Siemens in 2018, has added electrical vehicle charging capabilities at its Hingham, Massachusetts, facility.

In 2017, Russelectric installed a renewable, hybrid microgrid at its Hingham location, consisting of grid power, a solar photovoltaic power generation system, an energy storage system, and a diesel generator. The microgrid was designed to serve as both a source of renewable and emergency back-up power for the facility, and as a research and development platform to explore and demonstrate customer solutions.

Recently, two VersiCharge charging stations were added to complement Russelectric’s microgrid. These Level 2 charging stations have a capacity to charge electric vehicles at up to 7.2 kW (30A), thus providing a full charge for most EVs in under four hours.

The capability of the chargers to meter the energy consumption and execute load profiles provided by compatible controllers through either a local or remote connection makes them easy to integrate into the microgrid use case.

The charging stations allow Russelectric to provide charging capability, sourced from renewable power, for our employees’ electric vehicles, during normal business operations as well as grid outages. In addition, they serve as an R&D platform to explore how our customers can integrate electric vehicle charging solutions into their distributed energy power systems.

—Jason Martin, Head of Russelectric

Siemens’ charging technology is designed to be future-proof, to account for the future use case of providing energy back to the building from the EV battery.

The challenge in providing energy back to the building is not in the charger technology, but rather in the implementation with respect to customer preferences. This pilot installation will be an excellent sandbox in which we can explore how to execute driver and building preferences in a microgrid setting.

—Celia Dayagi, Head of Product Management for Siemens eMobility Solutions in North America