1. General information
The following article describes a standard confinguration for home charging with eCarUp / smart-me (for example for MFH / STEWG / MEG).
The advantage of this variant is that the data can be imported directly from the station (and without additional hardware) in 15 minute intervals data from the station into the smart-me platform. With this data quality, multi-tariff billing such as high and low tariff but also ZEV billing including solar tariff is possible.
This type of billing is currently only possible with the following station manufacturers, as they allow a 15 minute data import:
The bills are then automatically created in the smart-me portal using smart-me Billing and can be sent to the residents.
With the settings described below, the use case "charging at home with 15-minute import " can be configured on smart-me / eCarUp. The target state / benefits are as follows:
Stations are not publicly visible (only for invited special users).
Drivers can charge directly via the app or RFID card (chargeable)
Simple "onboarding" for the drivers
Prices have to be adjusted only 1x per year (mass mutation)
As an extra, an account for free charging can be created (e.g. for the janitor)
An eCarUp Premium license is required for this use case
2. Set up 15-minute data import to smart-me
The first step is to set up the data import to the correct smart-me account for the desired stations. Instructions on how to do this are described in a separate wiki article.
3. Configure smart-me billing
Now the charging stations are created as measuring points in smart-me and the billing can be set up.
The configuration and setup of smart-me billing is described in detail in the smart-me Wiki. If needed, contact one of our numerous partners of smart-me or eCarUp for configuration.
If the building is already running a ZEV with smart-me, the stations can be included in the bill in one of two ways:
List charging stations as a separate billing item.
Charging station consumption is listed in a separate bill alongside the apartment's consumption.
Especially if the costs for the charging station have to be shown in a separate invoice (e.g. for expense billing or in case of third-party rentals), this option is better.
Optionally, other items (e.g. for the charging station rental) can also be listed and charged.
Allocate charging stations to the apartment unit
The consumption for the apartment and the charging station are shown in one bill.
Charging stations are included as an additional "meter" directly in the apartment consumption, it is not possible to make a proper allocation of consumption to the individual items.
If the stations are only to be billed via smart-me billing, the configuration is completed here. In this case, the release / authentication must be solved locally via the respective system of the manufacturer.
The following describes how to additionally integrate the stations into the eCarUp backend.
IMPORTANT: Please use a different account for the connection to the eCarUp backend described below than for the connection with the 15-minute import. Otherwise, the stations will be created twice and the solved licenses will not be sufficient.
The integration in eCarUp brings some advantages:
Uncomplicated monitoring of charging points in the eCarUp dashboard and reports.
Stations have to be authenticated via eCarUp and can be released for the right users
Drivers can see their own charging history in the app or web portal
Flexible RFID / NFC handling for authentication at stations
Visitor stations can be easily charged via credit card
No additional costs
4. Connect charging stations to the eCarUp backend.
Additionally, the stations need to be connected to the eCarUp backend. The integration of the station models supported with this model are described directly with them:
A step by step guide to the integration of the stations is also available.
Since there is no credit card billing, the price for the stations in eCarUp must be set to 0.- per kWh and 0.- per h. The charging transactions are recorded as consumption and then claimed by invoice based on the rate structure set up in the billing.
5. Set up charging stations
Once the charging stations have been connected to eCarUp, they will appear in the eCarUp account in the dashboard and in the station management.
Basic settings
After that, the stations can be set up by clicking on "Stations" and then "Station management":
Change name and description of the station
Delete stations
Set locations
Edit connections (if more than one)
Define connection types (e.g. type 2,CSS or Chademo)
Max. Define energy (e.g. 22 kW)
Define access (Public, Limited and Private)
Public = all users / Limited = station owner and special user
Private = ONLY station owner or account in which the stations are installed
Set prices for energy and time
Define reserved times
Activate station from web portal
All settings for station owners are summarized in a wiki article.
Create station groups
Important for the management of the charging stations, is the organization in station groups (e.g. by locations or by apartment blocks):
Ready configured, it can look like this:
Create special user
So that the stations can only be activated by the authorized drivers / end customers, the authorizations must be made accordingly. There are two ways to do this:
1. Maintain user groups
In this variant, a user group is created and assigned to the stations. This makes it easy to add or remove a new member from the user group when there is a change of tenant or a new driver. This makes the administrative effort smaller.
The stations are set to the status "limited
A user group is created with all authorized drivers
The user group is mapped to the station group
A location is set for the stations
2. Assigning individual users to the stations.
In this variant, the individual drivers / end users are assigned to their respective stations, only the respective special user can activate his own charging station. This means that the accounts have to be assigned to the stations each time there is a change of tenant or a new driver, which means that the account has to be actively managed on an ongoing basis.
The stations are set to the status "limited
The correct driver account is activated with the correct price for the station.
A location for the station is stored
6. Inform drivers / end customers
It is recommended to inform the drivers / end customers about the release of the station. Drivers must create their own eCarUp account for payment and provide a valid credit card as a means of payment:
A possible instruction / template to send to drivers can be found here: LINK
All functions for drivers are summarized on a separate wiki page
There is also a FAQ for drivers with the most important questions and answers
Drivers can independently add RFID / NFC tags to their account and then use it to unlock the charging station
With eCarUp's flexible system, the administrative burden is minimized. The drivers / end customers can create and manage the accounts independently.
7. Label stations
To enable drivers to unlock the stations without an RFID card and with the app, we recommend labeling the stations with a QR code and a short instruction text. This helps, for example, if a driver loses his RFID card or does not have it with him.
You can find some examples of labeling directly on a wiki page.
8. Visitor parking
Charging stations can also be made public with eCarUp and thus billed to anonymous drivers. For this, the stations must be assigned the status "public" in the setup and a location must be set. In addition, the labeling of the charging stations is very important here, since the QR code can also be used for ad-hoc and thus barrier-free charging.
Other prices can also be easily assigned to the visitor parking spaces (see below).
Optionally, the stations can also be published in third-party charging networks via the roaming function. However, this only works if the station is publicly available 24 hours 7 days a week. You also need to be aware that the station will be found very widely afterwards (in a wide variety of apps and car navigation devices) and thus attract foreign users.
9. Error analysis and correction
With the help of the eCarUp portal, simple faults can be detected and the appropriate measures can be initiated. If stations are grayed out in the dashboard or in the station management and therefore marked as "inactive", they have lost the connection with the backend (longer than 10 minutes) and therefore cannot be used via eCarUp. There are two possible reasons for this:
Internet failure: restore the internet. As soon as the stations reach eCarUp again, the status will change to "available" or blue and can be used normally again.
Power failure: Restore the power supply. As soon as the stations reach eCarUp again, the status changes to "available" or blue and can be used normally again.
With the maintenance tool included in eCarUp Premium, the communication between charging station and backend can be tracked and a deeper error analysis can be done.
If the error is deeper, you have to contact the person responsible for the project (e.g. executing electrician).
Practical tip: In order to test or check the functionality of stations on site, an account can be created for the technical service or another responsible person on site (e.g. hauswart[at]musterhaus.ch). This account can be deposited at the stations as a special user with a price of 0 per kWh and 0 per h and can thus carry out tests without incurring costs.