HS analysis|There is an embarrassing feature in the charger obligation for even tens of thousands of properties, writes HS’s financial reporter Esa Juntunen.
Do you have to? should the charging power of an electric car have a lower limit?
The question is unusual, but so is the related regulation.
A detail regarding power was found in the law related to charging, on which the authority and experts disagree.
The detail brought up by HS has been clarified behind the scenes with a monthly discussion. In the background, a fascinating chain of events is revealed about how precisely things are interpreted or should be interpreted.
HS told in September “download law”. Many people do not know the whole law, even though one important aspect of it will come into force at the beginning of next year.
In that case, a charging device must be installed in heated or cooled properties in non-residential use and containing more than 20 parking spaces.
Rough example: municipal hall or ice rink.
The change affects tens of thousands of “old” properties. The obligation can be avoided with extenuating circumstances that can be investigated from the website of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency. There are different criteria for new or extensively repaired properties.
Traffic is becoming electrified, so charging devices are needed. Things get messy when we start to define what the charger should be.
The charging hatch of the Skoda Kodiaq plug-in hybrid reveals such a vision.
Electric cars the charging power unit is the kilowatt.
The power scale ranges from slow “night charging” of a few kilowatts to fast roadside chargers of hundreds of kilowatts. The more power, the more demanding the electrical solutions and the price.
Some want to get out of the obligation as easily as possible. They are interested in how low the power can go.
The obligation requires a charging device of more than 3.7 kilowatts. A decimal number may seem random, but it’s electrical engineering.
In the law do not say this number. The limit is based on to the EU regulation.
It describes what an electric car charger is like. At the end of the definition is a detail that excludes certain devices – and changes everything:
…“with the exception of devices with a maximum output power of 3.7 kW, whose primary purpose is not charging electric vehicles”.
Finnish electric car pioneer, master’s degree in engineering I am Vesa Linja has waded through domestic and international documents. He is convinced that there really is no kilowatt limit.
He’s referring to a recent byline about other ways to charge a car. Such a way is as simple as a wall outlet.
Let’s simplify this interpretation: In order to comply with the law, you can put in any powerful charger you like, as long as you don’t pull power from the wall or a heating pole.
Charging with a basic plug – in industry slang “suko” – is common, albeit slow and sometimes risky. Suko tunings will be eliminated at the latest through the technical details of the annexes of the EU regulation.
Here is a normal charging with a “type 2” cable.
Authorities however, have repeatedly communicated that the 3.7 kilowatt limit is or it actually has to be crossed.
In Linja-aho’s opinion, the authorities have been sitting on the nose of the summer platform when something critical happened.
The limit is inherited from a directive from a decade ago. It was from a time when electric cars were a marginal phenomenon. At that time, the matter was defined more vaguely, and the new regulation corrected “casting defects” in Linja-aho’s opinion.
The “Charging Act” was amended to refer to this regulation in July. Linja-aho estimates that the authorities have been staring at the old directive out of habit, because no one noticed the change during the summer holiday season.
He is troubled by the fact that an opinion has not been asked from impartial parties.
“What catches the eye is that (standardization organization) Sesko was not asked for an opinion on this at all.”
For delivery In addition to Linja-aho, there were also other contacts from people familiar with electrical technology. Has the authority declared an outdated message since the summer?
HS contacted the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, which began to investigate the matter with the Ministry of the Environment. After more than a month of investigation, the authority ruled: the old line should be used, i.e. the device must be over 3.7 kilowatts.
According to HS’s information, the agency tested the wording in a fundamental way and considered the discussion that arose on the power issue to be necessary. However, the current line will remain, so the agency does not intend to provide further information on the matter.
Here we go.
Line-me is disappointed because he cherishes accuracy.
“In general, when technical matters are included in the legal text, one should be very careful and at least ask for opinions from experts.”
For the general public, this is reflected in the wallet, so that the requirement to exceed the power limit can exclude the cheapest charging devices from the options.
In itself, getting a low-power device for the sake of shape is stupid. For example, if the municipal hall has a charger of a few kilowatts, it will only get a handful of kilometers with a quarter of a business beep.
Viisas buys several and efficient devices at once, preparing for the future. Even though the power now has a lower limit, it has no upper limit.