Featured Project
**Team**
- Chester Hall (chall28), Sabrina Moheydeen (sabrina7), Jarad Prill (jaradjp2)
**Title**
- Economic Overnight Outlet
**Problem**
- Real-time pricing in ISOs, such as the Midwest, California, New England, and New York, provides differentials in electricity prices throughout the day that can be taken advantage of. The peak price of electricity compared to the minimum prices can feature variations of up to 70%. With price agnostic charging, this results in unnecessary costs for those who charge devices (see attached spreadsheet). This same principle can thus be scaled for large commercialized applications requiring high-capacity batteries, resulting in a higher savings potential to be taken advantage of.
- Calcs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JBzt2xm0Ue4a_teosdak623h0zSP5nHRKi7Wi8rMcPo/edit?usp=sharing
**Solution Overview**
- We will create a device that can fetch real-time prices from regional ISOs and enable charging when prices are lowest. Our primary application will be centered towards warehouse electric vehicles using high-capacity, fast-charging lithium ion batteries. Such vehicles include forklifts, cleaning machines, and golf carts.
**Solution Components**
- [ISO LMP API] - Through use of a WiFi-enabled microcontroller we can fetch real-time prices and build our control system around these values.
- [Passive High Performance Protection] - In order to provide downstream safety to the loads, we will ensure the device features surge protection and is rated for the high current of fast charging. The switching of the connection will be done with a contactor whose coil is energized according to the microcontroller.
- [Device Display] - LCD display to show information about the current energy price and the current day’s savings.
- [Manual User Override] - The device will feature a manual toggle switch to either enable or disable the cost-optimized charging feature allowing users to charge loads at any time, not necessarily the cheapest.
- [User Interface] - Software application to allow for user input regarding the time of day the device must be charged by. The application will also display information about total savings per week, month, or year and savings over the device’s lifetime.
- [Control Power Converter] - In order to run the low voltage control systems from the outlet, either 120VAC or 3-phase 480VAC, we will need to step this down to a low DC voltage of around 3.3VDC.
- [Memory System] - Microcontroller capable of performing control function within user specified parameters.
- [Device Connection] - Connectivity to the battery of the device being charged so that current state of charge (SoC) information can be used. Potential experimental filter algorithms will be used in order to estimate the SoC automatically, without requiring the user to input the specific data of the device being used.
**Criterion for Success**
- Able to charge devices at lowest cost times of the day and display current pricing and savings information. The upfront cost of a large-scale reproducible product must be less than the lifetime savings incurred by purchasing the product. Users without an engineering background can easily analyze their savings to visually recognize the device’s benefit.