ChargePilot® Fallback Mechanism

Modified on Thu, 20 Nov at 11:15 AM

ChargePilot provides a fail-safe and fallback mechanism for any communication loss of the local controller, ensuring that charging is possible at any time.

TMH-Cloud

When TMH Cloud connection is lost, ChargePilot continues operating in autonomous mode using cached configuration and local decision-making. All charging sessions continue uninterrupted, with data synchronized once connection is restored.

During the offline period it is not possible to monitor the charge points live via the ChargePilot Dashboard. Statistic data is only shown for dates before the offline period and any changes to the configuration (e.g. adding a new RFID tag) will only take effect when the connection is reestablished.

Charger

When a charging station loses connection, ChargePilot removes it from active load management while allowing the station to continue charging with a preconfigured fallback value. Other stations are rebalanced to optimize the remaining capacity.

For static (sub-)distribution: The available capacity for the remaining charging sessions is reduced by the fallback value of the offline station. This will be the case regardless if there is an actual charging session ongoing or not, since we load is not measurable and therefore unknown to the load management.

For dynamic (sub-)distribution with an energy meter: In case there is active charging at the offline charger, the meter will measure the load as side load. No unnecessary blocking of capacity.

By setting a fallback value it is ensured, that Charging Stations charge reliable within the available grid connection in case of loss of data connection or outage of the local controller. The fallback value is set individually per Charging Station.

It is important, that the sum of all set fallback values is not exceeding the grid connection Limit.

Grid meter

If meter communication is interrupted, ChargePilot uses a preconfigured fallback value that estimates the uncontrollable side load (e.g. building load like a workshop). The available capacity for the remaining charging sessions is reduced by the fallback value of the offline meter.

EMS and Micro grid controller

If EMS or micro grid controller communication fails, ChargePilot falls back to static power limits. The system continues to distribute available power across charging stations using a limit reduced by the fallback value of the offline EMS or micro grid controller. The fallback value is a estimation of uncontrollable side load.

A EMS or Micro grid controller is considered offline if no power limit is (re)set via the Modbus Interface in a configurable renewal interval.

3rd Party OCPP Backend (OCPP Proxy)

When the 3rd party OCPP backend becomes unavailable, ChargePilot maintains local charging operations. All OCPP transaction data are queued locally and synchronized automatically when the connection is re-established, ensuring no data loss. In detail:

ChargePilot drops connection with 3rd Party CSMS. No Heartbeats/ Metervalues, etc. will be sent.
ChargePilot holds connection with Charging Station.
Start- and Stop-Transaction Messages queued in LMS will be sent, after connection to 3rd party CSMS is established again. (During the offline period the OCPP tx ids are generated by ChargePilot for OCPP communication between Charger and ChargePilot during the offline period. When the 3rd Party CSMS is coming back online ChargePilot will forward all messages and in that process also receive a tx id from the 3rd Party CSMS that will be mapped with the one created by ChargePilot during the offline period)
Load Management continues regularly.
Authorization does work with previously authorized RFIDs (cached centrally on the LC). Unless the OCPP config key LocalAuthorizeOffline is set to false by the CSMS.
ChargePilot is trying to reestablish connection every 30s.