Inspections reduce the risks of offering electric vehicle charging

What’s the worst thing that could happen? Eddie Hasth, a department head at RISE, hesitates a little, but then answers: 

“The worst-case scenario is someone hacking a number of electric vehicles being charged in an indoor car park. They overcharge the batteries and set fire to the entire car park. And if you have a residential building above, well, things can develop pretty quickly.” 

“When an electric vehicle ignites, it produces an extremely fierce and toxic fire that’s difficult to extinguish.”  

At the end of 2022, Sweden had almost 18,000 registered charging points. This is some way off from the EU recommendation of one public charging point for every ten vehicles*, so we can expect to see a significant expansion over the next few years.  

This means that countless organisations and associations, with no previous experience of providing this type of service, will become charging providers. The board of a housing cooperative, hoteliers, restaurant branch managers and others are to suddenly understand and plan for the risks associated with providing electric vehicle charging. 

“This knowledge is often lacking,” says Hasth.  

There are multiple risk factors that both providers and users need to be protected from: incorrect settings that can cause personal injury or property damage, cyber attacks, unauthorised charging, complicated handling and more. 

Package offering with inspections and certification 

Accordingly, RISE is now launching a package offering with regular charging station inspections as well as the certification and testing of charging components and infrastructure.  

Ted Strandberg is a project manager at RISE with a focus on cyber security. He says that the current NIS directive** and new EU regulations will mean mandatory safety requirements for everything from product development and operation to incident management. 

There is good reason to prepare for the stricter rules that are on their way in, he says. 

The cyber threats that charging providers need to be prepared for mainly concern payments (incorrect fees, free charging), the overcharging of batteries resulting in fire, and disruptions to the power grid. 

“Someone could hack the charging station via the vehicle, or vice versa, hack the vehicle via the charging station,” says Strandberg. 

“If someone manages to hack their way in and disrupt the charging stations by switching the charging function on and off for several vehicles at the same time, it could have a major impact on the power grid and risk damaging equipment.” 

The goal: Harmonised regulations across the EU 

One goal is to achieve harmonised regulations, at either EU or national level, Hasth explains. 

“At the moment, countless charging posts are being installed before all the regulations are in place. My personal opinion is that the two should go hand in hand.” 

He explains that there is concern in the industry that stations are being installed by insufficiently qualified individuals. 

“This is why we started a project group for charging stations. To help the market see what rules are coming and to ensure that consumers get the energy they pay for.” 

Verification services an existing offering 

RISE has long offered trade and industry verification services for, among other things, scales and fuel meters. 

“In the case of standard petrol and diesel pumps, for example, we check whether the right software version is installed. The right electronics? Are all installations in order? Is it truly type-approved?” 

The equivalent service will now be offered for charging stations. 

“We’ve developed mobile equipment that we’re currently field testing. We’re collecting measurement data from different types of charging stations to form a picture of the market situation. Will we find meters that can’t be tested? Is everything installed correctly? What do the meters show?” 

How long does a regular charging station inspection like this take? 

Hasth says that RISE is testing about 100 different charging stations from various manufacturers. Then they will establish a standard method. 

“At the moment, we’re timing the inspections. But they don’t take several hours. We’re looking at being able to test several charging stations at the same time. The inspections need to be optimised, efficient and effective.” 

*As of November 2022, Sweden had about 24 vehicles per charging point. 

**NIS2 has been adopted by the European parliament and includes, among other things, higher penalty fees.