Burns & McDonnell teams up with Greenlots on advanced EV Charging Network

Greenlots' SKY EV Charging Network Software is being integrated into an expanded network at Burns & McDonnell's headquarters as part of a programme that will explore user interactions and use cases for integrating the charging infrastructure with other technology platforms to unlock the full benefits of a distributed energy future. The two companies will work together to provide complementary hardware and software solutions that will extend the global reach of EVs.

Greenlots enables the future of electric transportation by delivering EV charging hardware, software and analytics that utilities, automakers, cities and governments need to leverage, and manage, EV infrastructure at scale. Greenlots' turnkey EV charging solutions support programmes with San Diego Gas & Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Electrify America, to name a few.

The company's hardware agnostic SKY EV Charging Network Software provides real-time monitoring and fault detection to keep chargers running, flexible pricing tools to allow workplaces to offer compelling charging rates to employees, and advanced grid balancing tools for grid operators to control these networks from a broader energy standpoint.

"Our alliance with Burns & McDonnell will allow Greenlots to accelerate the global deployment of innovative EV charging solutions," said John McLean, Director of Strategic Alliances for Greenlots. "Greenlots' market-leading technology, combined with Burns & McDonnell's century-plus of design expertise, allows us to offer our clients a unique and compelling turnkey solution."

"Electric vehicles are coming soon and electric utilities have a great opportunity if they are ready," says Mike Beehler, Vice President of Burns & McDonnell. "The new charging loads have the potential to be significant so we, as an industry, need to test our response. We are excited to partner with Greenlots, the recognised technology leader, in this emerging technology."

The project will incorporate networked Level 2 charging stations, each of which can fully charge a vehicle in four to six hours' time. The new stations will augment an existing charging network on the Burns & McDonnell campus that utilises older technology. Burns & McDonnell covers 100% of the costs of EV charging for employee-owners connected to the campus charging infrastructure.

The Greenlots SKY operating platform is being integrated with Burns & McDonnell's open standards electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) to provide real-time visibility into the network and allow for charging data collection.

The software includes an app that will allow Burns & McDonnell employee-owners to monitor progress as their own vehicles charge, or, if waiting in line, see which stations may be available soon. The platform also provides a wealth of data on systems and technology performance that will be vital information as Burns & McDonnell's charging infrastructure is built out on a broader scale.

The new charging network will provide Burns & McDonnell's Business Intelligence and Analytics team with an environment to experiment with new methods of customer interactions.

Charging data will also be analysed for predictive modeling within a new Burns & McDonnell Integration and Automation Lab that was created to enable real-time testing of advanced equipment that utilities are incorporating into their power grids. The testing and modeling results from this installation will help many of Burns & McDonnell's utility clients plan for the impact of expected load growth created by thousands of EVs charging on their systems.