Electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) configuration management system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12323796-B2
Application number	US-202218061629-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 5, 2022
Priority date	Dec 5, 2022
Publication date	Jun 3, 2025
Grant date	Jun 3, 2025

Abstract

An Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) configuration management system is provided for managing configuration of an EVSE. The system comprises a centralized system configured to supply locally or remotely a series of known valid credential combinations to a group of EVSEs on a sharing basis. It further comprises a first EVSE communicatively coupled to the centralized system. The first EVSE comprises a first processor and a first memory storing instructions that, when executed by the first processor, cause the first EVSE to: store in the first EVSE locally/remotely a first wireless network configuration based on a first valid credential combination associated with a first wireless network that has a first login and a first password, and store in the first EVSE remotely a second wireless network configuration based on a second valid credential combination associated with a second wireless network that has a second login and a second password.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) configuration management system, the system comprising:
a centralized system configured to supply locally or remotely a series of known valid Wi-Fi Service Set Identifier (SSID) and password credential combinations to a group of EVSEs on a sharing basis;
a first parent EVSE and a child EVSE wherein the first parent EVSE has a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) modem such as a device that allows a wireless device to connect to internet using cellular network and a hot spot such as a wireless access point that allows a user to connect wireless devices to the internet, such that that the child EVSE is connected to the first parent EVSE who can support multiple child EVSEs; and
a first EVSE communicatively coupled to the centralized system, the first EVSE comprising: a first processor and a first memory storing instructions that, when executed by the first processor, cause the first EVSE to:
store in the first EVSE locally or remotely a first Wi-Fi configuration based on a first valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combination associated with a first Wi-Fi network that has a first Wi-Fi SSID and a first password, and
store in the first EVSE remotely a second Wi-Fi configuration based on a second valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combination associated with a second Wi-Fi network that has a second Wi-Fi SSID and a second password such that when configuring the first EVSE not to load all of Wi-Fi configurations but to load based on a location, an association to a company and having user rights to the company, wherein the centralized system further comprising:
a cloud that is configured to manage the configuration of the first EVSE so once the first EVSE is network connected it can receive multiple pre-known valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combinations from the cloud.

2. The EVSE configuration management system of claim 1 , wherein the cloud ensures that the multiple pre-known valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combinations are distributed to only a subset of the group of EVSEs in the entire charger population controlled by an administrator configuring these charger settings.

3. The EVSE configuration management system of claim 1 , wherein the centralized system further comprising: a hand-held computing device such as a cellular phone that can be used to configure multiple EVSEs where the multiple pre-known valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combinations are stored.

4. The EVSE configuration management system of claim 3 , wherein it could also happen that the cellular phone grabs Wi-Fi configuration information from the cloud and when configuring a EVSE the Wi-Fi configuration information is preloaded by identifying a charger serial number to a list of EVSEs that belong to a company or a location.

5. The EVSE configuration management system of claim 4 , wherein a location of the cellular phone could be used to infer a charger location, so no need to enter that manually.

6. The EVSE configuration management system of claim 5 , wherein when configuring the first EVSE there could be one or more Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combinations that are valid for those locations or that company which a certain company can load.

7. The EVSE configuration management system of claim 6 , wherein a profile of the first EVSE and user rights to the certain company are associated to the certain company or associated by the act of commissioning such that once a user associates the first EVSE to the certain company who has preconfigured credentials that apply to that location or different locations then the preconfigured credentials are automatically stored in the first EVSE.

8. The EVSE configuration management system of claim 1 , further comprising: a second parent EVSE such that the child EVSE is disposed equidistant between the first and second parent EVSEs so when configuring the child EVSE not to load all of Wi-Fi configurations but to load based on a location, an association to a company and having user rights to the company such that both Wi-Fi access point information is loaded into the child EVSE and then the child EVSE will connect to one of the first and second parent EVSEs based on a better connection profile and the child EVSE will be periodically informed by a backend on what are valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combinations for the location that the company allows the child EVSE to have.

9. A method of managing configuration of an Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE), the method comprising:
providing a centralized system configured to supply locally or remotely a series of known valid Wi-Fi Service Set Identifier (SSID) and password credential combinations to a group of EVSEs on a sharing basis;
providing a first parent EVSE and a child EVSE wherein the first parent EVSE has a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) modem such as a device that allows a wireless device to connect to internet using cellular network and a hot spot such as a wireless access point that allows a user to connect wireless devices to the internet, such that that the child EVSE is connected to the first parent EVSE who can support multiple child EVSEs; and
providing a first EVSE communicatively coupled to the centralized system, the first EVSE comprising: a first processor and a first memory storing instructions that, when executed by the first processor, cause the first EVSE to:
store in the first EVSE locally or remotely a first Wi-Fi configuration based on a first valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combination associated with a first Wi-Fi network that has a first Wi-Fi SSID and a first password, and
store in the first EVSE remotely a second Wi-Fi configuration based on a second valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combination associated with a second Wi-Fi network that has a second Wi-Fi SSID and a second password such that when configuring the first EVSE not to load all of Wi-Fi configurations but to load based on a location, an association to a company and having user rights to the company, wherein the centralized system further comprising:
a cloud that is configured to manage the configuration of the first EVSE so once the first EVSE is network connected it can receive multiple pre-known valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combinations from the cloud.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the cloud ensures that the multiple pre-known valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combinations are distributed to only a subset of the group of EVSEs in the entire charger population controlled by an administrator configuring these charger settings.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the centralized system further comprising:
a hand-held computing device such as a cellular phone that can be used to configure multiple EVSEs where the multiple pre-known valid Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combinations are stored.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein it could also happen that the cellular phone grabs Wi-Fi configuration information from the cloud and when configuring a EVSE the Wi-Fi configuration information is preloaded by identifying a charger serial number to a list of EVSEs that belong to a company or a location.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein a location of the cellular phone could be used to infer a charger location, so no need to enter that manually.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein when configuring the first EVSE there could be one or more Wi-Fi SSID and password credential combinations that are valid for those locations or that company which a certain company can load, and wherein a profile of the first EVSE and user rights to the certain company are assoc

Assignees

• Siemens Industry Inc

Inventors

• Feldman Daniel

Classifications

• B60L53/65

  involving identification of vehicles or their battery types · CPC title

• H04W12/73

  Access point logical identity · CPC title

• B60L53/60

  Monitoring or controlling charging stations · CPC title

• H04L63/083

  using passwords (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226) · CPC title

• H04W12/04

  Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA] · CPC title