Asking for uh some interested people: how do streetside and public charging stations for electric vehicles perform in flooding? Are there cutoffs or do the stations stay live in floodwater?
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Was tag adding also encouraged?
These should increase the reach by oh, at least three people.
@liamvhogan I'm assuming you're talking about AC charging.
First of all, it's likely connected via an RCD or circuit breaker, as with any other electrical load, which trips in case of earth leakage or over current, very likely to happen in a flood.
Secondly, chargers themselves almost universally have built-in RCDs and breakers, in case it was installed without one.
The breakers in the charger are normally open, and close only if the conditions are correct.
Those conditions being established communication with the car via the signal pins, the charger giving permission for the allowed current draw, and the charger measuring the actual current draw via CT clamps.
It can react to an improper state by opening its internal breakers.
The car itself may also have similar measurements and its own breakers.
If there's flooding causing internal shorting within the charger, most likely that'll be a short to earth, not the charger cable.
The most likely outcome from flooding is that the charger will be permanently damaged and not work again.
But I expect it to be a safe failure, or at the very least, not special or unique versus any other electrical protection situation.
If DC charging, I don't know the details, other than to know that far more of the complexities are delegated to the charger side of things, so I'd expect it to fail internally (think chunky fuses) before the car perceives anything, or worst case the car can similarly pop its breakers.
EV charging stations perform poorly when wet.
Academic paper: