According to official data, there were 265 million light 2-wheeler vehicles registered in India in 2022. Supported by ITES, smart microgrid specialists Entrust Microgrid set up an R&D project to investigate how their patented smart microgrid and electric vehicle (EV) charging technologies could be adapted to help power India’s growing numbers of 2-wheeler light electric vehicles.
Why Entrust Microgrid
For ITES, setting up their first pilot project with Entrust was a perfect fit. Entrust specialises in smart microgrid systems that maximise user benefits from embedded solar PVs, energy storage systems, EV chargers and other smart energy appliances. Entrust’s Smart Microgrid offers a high penetration of renewable energy at high power efficiency with low grid connection costs.
ITES and IISc support
The project was co-funded by ITES which also provided feedback and advice around the technical solution. IISc (ITES’s Indian partner) provided research on details of vehicles and charging systems within India. In addition, there were monthly catch-up meetings, and informed knowledge sharing activities and collaboration opportunities including masterclasses and webinars.
Scope of the project
The R&D project enabled Entrust to investigate the art of the possible in terms of adapting their chargers and charging management system to support and be compatible with 2 wheeler electric vehicles in India. Their two-phase investigations also provided insight into the potential challenges in their prototype development from initial outline to lab-based testing solution.
Phase 1 delivered market information and insight into the 2-wheeler mobility market in India, ensuring Entrust was properly informed of the landscape and potential risks.
Phase 2 involved developing a design spec for a 0.5kW DC/DC charging module, and then building a functional prototype that was tested and validated using an EV 2-wheeler.
The R&D project provided Entrust with a detailed understanding and helped developed deeper thinking around the challenges their technology faces within the Indian market.
It also made clear that the lack of standards and regulations in the field of battery management systems (BMS) within the EV 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler sector poses a lot of risk. Entrust realised that their technology solution would need to be adapted to be compatible with different manufacturers’ BMS solutions and charging sockets. It emerged that each manufacture may develop a different BMS using different communications protocols and interfaces, each of which are commercially sensitive. Therefore, trying to create a “one size fits all solution” would be very difficult.
To overcome and mitigate the risk for the R&D project, Entrust decided to remove the unknown and use an “off the shelf” EV 2-wheeler as a testbed and platform to aid validation. The scale of the challenge became even more apparent when the prototyped EV charger did not communicate with the E-bike’s battery packs BMS, as no communication protocol was available. So even with a suitable charger and socket, no management or control could take place.
Looking ahead
Plans for future trials will investigate producing EV battery packs for Indian e-bike manufacturers that “talk” with the prototype hardware developed as part of the ITES R&D project.
Lowri Williams, Technical Lead for ITES said:
“One of the great features of R&D projects is that they often reveal challenges (and solutions) that simply were not envisaged at the start. This exciting R&D project helped Entrust Microgrid to learn about and be better prepared for the Indian EV 2-wheeler market, a brand-new area of investigation and exploration for Entrust in the field of light electric charging.
The high level and hands-on support from ITES enabled Entrust to see the potential of scaling up their patented microgrid technology in India, for the benefit of the EV 2-wheeler drivers, domestic energy users, and also play a role in India’s Net Zero energy ambitions.”
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