Battery Buffering Could Amplify the Number of Quick-Charge Connections

­Could a special technique enable charging stations to accommodate vast number of quick-charge connections?

ADS-TEC Energy believes that a technology called “battery buffering” can amplify the grid power at the charge point, providing “a quick charge within minutes up to 320 kW. It’s able to carry out ultra-fast charging output power even on a low power (50 kW to 110 kW) grid connection.”

The company’s ChargeBox allows for quick-charging — where the grid performance is usually too low — by have the buffer filled from the existing grid on a lower power rate, after which available grid power “can be boosted to 320 kW by using the buffered energy in the charger.”

It supports legacy systems up to 200 V, all the way up to the 920 V vehicles of the future.

But what is battery buffering?

Smart energy solutions manufacturer Powerstar describes Battery Buffered Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging as “the use of a battery storage system to reduce the impact of EV chargers on your overall power demand.”

Modern high-speed chargers require as much as 350kW of power each, or double the power needs of the entire Powerstar factory.

Essentially, battery buffered EV charging is similar to energy storage solutions, allowing you to stockpile energy on-site. Notably, this sort of solution requires minimal or no infrastructure upgrades.

And if you’ve been paying attention to the modern EV saga, you know how absolutely critical the proper infrastructure is to pushing EVs into the mainstream (by making quick-tech a lot more prevalent).

Any solution that can do all of that can make an important contribution towards ending “range anxiety” and accelerating the adoption of EVs.