Introduction
With the WARP Energy Manager 1.0, we offer our energy manager for control cabinet mounting, with which energy consumption at home can be monitored, controlled and optimized.
In conjunction with our WARP Charger chargers, the charging of electric vehicles can be controlled depending on grid consumption and feed-in. Among other things, this enables PV excess charging or dynamic load management.
Features
With a three-phase bidirectional energy meter, the WARP Energy Manager 1.0 can continuously measure the power at the grid connection (e.g. the house connection). Various meter types and connection types are supported.
Energy Monitoring
The WARP Energy Manager displays the measured values of the energy meter in its web interface. It shows how much power is drawn from the grid or fed in (if a photovoltaic system is present). Power and other measured values are displayed live on the web interface.
Every five minutes, the measured values are saved locally on the energy manager's microSD card. This makes the WARP Energy Manager independent of data recording on cloud servers. This data can be displayed graphically for each day.
Additionally, energy consumption and feed-in are recorded on a daily basis. This allows energy consumption to be analyzed on a daily, monthly and annual basis.
Control of Chargers
The WARP Energy Manager can control WARP Charger chargers depending on consumption. Up to ten chargers of type WARP Charger Smart, WARP Charger Pro, WARP2 Charger Smart and WARP2 Charger Pro are supported. Control is via a network connection (LAN, WiFi) between the chargers and the WARP Energy Manager.
With various settings, you can define under which conditions and with how much power vehicles are charged.
Phase Switching
Using an external contactor, the WARP Energy Manager can switch connected chargers between single-phase and three-phase operation.
WARP Charger (1st generation) chargers unfortunately do not support phase switching.
Phase switching reduces the minimum charging power from approx. 4.1 kW in three-phase operation (minimum charging current 6 A) to approx. 1.4 kW. This means that even a small power excess can be used to charge a vehicle. Without phase switching, charging is not possible with a small power excess and the excess is fed into the grid. Alternatively, additional power would have to be drawn from the grid so that charging can start.
Inputs for Potential-Free Contacts
The WARP Energy Manager has two inputs for potential-free switching contacts. If phase switching is used, one of these inputs is permanently used for contactor monitoring. Otherwise, the reaction of the energy manager to the inputs can be configured. For example, a general charge release can be implemented or the charging current of the chargers can be limited.
Potential-Free Relay Output
The potential-free relay switching output of the WARP Energy Manager can be used to switch external consumers or similar. The output can be configured and switched, for example, depending on the available power, the current grid consumption or a completed phase switch.
The relay cannot switch mains voltage (230 V). Up to 30 V/1 A can be switched.
With a future firmware update, for example, SG-Ready control inputs of heat pumps can be controlled with this relay output.
Status LED
The WARP Energy Manager has a status LED on the front. If PV excess charging is enabled (see PV Excess Charging), this LED visualizes the state at the grid connection by slowly pulsing or "breathing". The LED colors are as follows:
- Green: Power is fed into the grid
- Yellow: Power is drawn from the grid
- Blue: "No" power at the grid connection (< ±200 W)
If PV excess charging is not enabled, the LED breathes green. In case of errors, the status LED blinks (see Troubleshooting).
Typical Applications
PV Excess Charging
If a photovoltaic system is present, you probably want to use as much of your own produced electricity as possible. The WARP Energy Manager can help by enabling pure PV excess charging, in which only excess energy is charged into the vehicle. Alternatively, a permitted proportional grid consumption can be defined. This is useful if the self-produced power is not sufficient to start charging, but you still want to charge.
For PV excess charging, the WARP Energy Manager requires an energy meter at your grid connection to determine the excess, i.e., the feed-in of electrical power into the grid. The WARP Energy Manager then controls the chargers so that no power is fed into the grid (grid consumption = 0) or a defined grid consumption is maintained. This depends on your settings. See the list of compatible energy meters and the tutorial on PV excess charging.
The key point here is that only power regulation takes place; the individual phase currents are not regulated. Since the grid operator's energy meter, which determines electricity costs, operates in a balancing manner, phase current regulation is not necessary.
Static Load Management
When multiple chargers share a common supply line, the maximum current is often limited by this supply line. As an example, several chargers could share a 32 A line. Two chargers could each be operated as 11 kW chargers (2 x 16 A). However, it would also be possible to operate one charger at 22 kW (32 A) if the second charger is not being used. Static load management is used for these applications.
The WARP Energy Manager can handle static load management for the chargers. No energy meter is necessary here; only the maximum current of the supply line needs to be defined. This current must be available at all times. The energy manager distributes the current among the controlled chargers according to demand.
Dynamic Load Management
In some cases, dynamic load management at the phase current level is required. A typical example of this is rental properties where the grid connection of the property is insufficient to operate multiple chargers simultaneously. The grid connection protection limits the permissible phase current.
In the simplest case, a certain phase current can be guaranteed for all chargers. In this case, the chargers can perform static load management, where the available phase current is divided among the WARP Chargers (see Static Load Management).
However, often it cannot be guaranteed that a certain phase current is always available for charging processes, as the chargers share the grid connection with other consumers. When these consumers are switched on and off, the phase current available for the chargers changes constantly. In this case, dynamic load management is necessary to ensure that the maximum phase current is not exceeded and no fuse trips.
The WARP Energy Manager enables dynamic load management at the phase current level. This requires an energy meter at the grid connection that can be evaluated by the energy manager. The energy manager monitors the available phase current from the grid connection and regulates the power of the chargers accordingly. This ensures that the maximum phase current is not exceeded and no fuse trips. If a photovoltaic system is present and producing energy, it automatically increases the available power for the energy manager to optimize charging of electric vehicles.
Combination PV + Load Management
PV excess charging and static or dynamic load management can be combined. The WARP Energy Manager then operates power regulation for PV excess charging while ensuring that phase current limitations are maintained through charge management.