Load Management

Experimental

The Load Management feature is still experimental. It may not perform as expected in combination with some other features.

The load management/load balancing feature can be used to limit the power used by chargers to prevent overloading the circuits and tripping breakers. By limiting the power, it could also be useful if you want to avoid accidental high peak usage. To accomplish this, a charging point can be assigned to a circuit. A circuit can have a maximum current value (maxCurrent) and/or a maximum power value (maxPower). The system works hierarchically, i.e., an electrical circuit can be part of a higher-level electrical circuit.

Configuration

The configuration is done via the evcc.yaml file. The section circuits defines the circuits. Each charging point can then be assigned to an electrical circuit.

Example: Main Circuit

circuits:
  - name: main # if there is only one circuit defined the name needs to be 'main'
    title: 'main circuit' # name for the UI (not implemented in UI yet)
    maxCurrent: 63 # 63A (optional)
    maxPower: 30000 # 30kW (optional)
    meter: grid # optional

loadpoints:
  - title: Garage
    circuit: main

This configuration only configures a main circuit. The circuit has a maximum current of 63A. If there are other consumers like an oven/heat pump (this requires a meter) using a total of 50A, the charger will only be allowed to use 13A. The circuit has a limit of 30kW. If there are 2 charging points that each request 22kW, they will both be dialed back to 15kW.

Example: Nested Circuits

circuits:
  - name: main
    title: 'main circuit'
    maxCurrent: 48
  - name: garage
    title: Garage
    maxCurrent: 32
    parent: main
  - name: carport
    title: Carport
    maxCurrent: 32
    parent: main

loadpoints:
  - title: Garage A
    circuit: garage
  - title: Garage B
    circuit: garage
  - title: Garage C
    circuit: garage
  - title: Carport A
    circuit: carport
  - title: Carport B
    circuit: carport
  - title: Heat Pump
    circuit: main

Here we have two circuits, garage and carport, both of which are children/downstream of the main circuit (parent: main). The main circuit has a maximum current of 48A. The circuits garage and carport each have a maximum current of 32A. The charging points Garage A, Garage B, and Garage C are assigned to the garage circuit (circuit: garage). The charging points Carport A and Carport B are assigned to the carport circuit (circuit: carport). The circuits garage, carport, and the heat pump are connected directly to the root circuit (main). The regulation ensures that the limits of the respective circuits are not exceeded at any time.

Important: There must always be a main circuit. This has no parent property.

Measuring

By default, the control system calculates the current power and current from the sum of the respective charging points. By configuring a meter on a circuit, the real load can also be taken into account. This is particularly useful if other consumers are also connected to the fuse.

meters:
  - name: carport_meter
    type: template
    template: shelly-3em

circuits:
  - name: carport
    meter: carport_meter
    maxCurrent: 32

Limits

Both a maximum current per phase (maxCurrent) and a maximum power (maxPower) can be configured on each circuit. These values, if configured, are monitored independently of each other.

Restrictions

info

A separate license will be required later for commercial use of load management. Private use with smaller installations will remain free of charge.

• No status information and boundary notices in the UI yet.
• priority settings at the charging point are not yet taken into account.
• Charging planning currently ignores Load Management, so reduced charging speeds due to load limits could lead to missing the charge target.