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It’s the height of summer in India. The surface of the road simmers with heat, birds reconsider migration plans, and your EV charging station is packed. But just when business should be booming, the hardware gives out. The relentless heat has triggered a breakdown and with it, a potential avalanche of revenue loss, equipment damage, and customer dissatisfaction. This is not rare of an occurrence. Recently (April 2025), there was a fire incident at an idle EV charger in Vizag. Normally people assume idle as ‘power off’ state, however chargers still maintain standby power in this state. System breakdowns and hazards like these are a scenario that concern Charge Point Operators (CPOs). The EV charging systems that promise speed, flexibility, cost-efficiency and energy diversity, are built with many electrical components and intricate systems. Assuming if all the safety systems in place were functioning properly, then these disasters could have been avoided.
So, what exactly causes these failures, and why are advanced EV charging systems especially vulnerable?
Multiple electrical components create failure points
There are electrical components like voltage rectifiers, batteries, processors, and gateways that help create the high-power charging solution. Broadly these components can be classified into: (a) Power modules, (b) Controls, and (c) Balance of System (BOS). These include:a) Power modules: Rectifiers, contactors, and other modules. b) Controls: Voltage regulation, current limiting, temperature monitoring, and state-of-charge estimation. c) The Balance of System: Includes wiring, fuses and circuit breakers, switches, mounting systems, inverters, battery banks, and battery chargers. In mostly cases, one of the faulty components of Controls and BoS cause up to 89% of system failures (see chart of EPRI survey). Speaking in root cause terms, this is usually the result of a cascade failure where one component (like power transistor) fails and another component (like fuses) doesn’t catch the fault in time.
Since malfunction risks are spread across components, we need a comprehensive risk avoidance approach. The breakdown risks are not only limited to how components interact with each other, but also how it reacts with extreme environmental conditions.
So, how can CPOs outline and mitigate the risks by designing for safety from the get-go?
Environmental extremes triggering system malfunctions
The key environmental risks and their impact on EV charging stations are:
- Extreme temperatures: causes overheating, reduced efficiency, equipment failure
- High Humidity and seepage: cause corrosion, electrical failure such as short circuits
- Rain and Flooding: causes short circuit and physical damage to equipment
- Dust and Particulate Matter: reduces cooling efficiency and higher corrosion
- Voltage fluctuations and surges due to lightening cause equipment failure
The solution to mitigating these risks lies in creating two layers of protection. First, there needs to be a physical protection layer that reduces the impact of these environmental risk factors. Second, is creating an optimization layer that manages all these protection layers for optimal utilization of control mechanisms.
What are these protection layers? Let’s look into it.
Protective casing against environmental extremes
The solution to effectively address environmental safety concerns in EV charging is to create a protective casing with safety features engineered with world-class standards. This leads to a significant reduction in outages and breakdowns and an increased system lifespan.
Physical safety features prevent foreign elements like dust, liquid, and moisture from seeping into the charging system. This is done by making the housing system water and dustproof and by maintaining appropriate temperature for the components. Three key protection that must be provided are:
- Ingress Protection: Ingress protection (IP) ratings indicate the effectiveness of blocking dust, water/moisture, and other foreign bodies. For effective protection, EV charging should achieve ratings of IP65/ IP66.
- Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling (HVAC): Heat is one of the major concerns in the usage of any battery system. EV Charging systems should be equipped with cooling systems for batteries to work at optimum levels. Two types of cooling systems can be used:
- Air-cooled - Traditional systems use air cooled HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) to maintain ambient temperature in battery enclosures. These systems are cost-effective, have low maintenance, and can be implemented in most conditions.
- Liquid-cooled - Liquid-cooled system uses pipes with cooling liquid, which is pumped through the system to keep the battery enclosure cool in high temperatures. This system is especially effective in high-power applications (Like charging EVs) as it improves thermal performance and provides higher energy density.
Lightning Protection and Earthing: Every year the Earth experiences several billion lightning strikes. These lightning strikes can induce surges in the system and can damage the components. IEC 60364 is the standard that outlines the installation to safeguard the systems from lightning strikes. Beyond these pre-emptive methods, there are safety functions like an Emergency Kill Switch, which can stop operations of the entire system, and a Stop charging button at the individual charger level, which can stop the power to a particular EV.
Safety Control Systems optimize the usage of these protective controls
Beyond direct physical controls, EV Charger should ideally have additional control systems that further increase the safety. Here are some such control systems that help in making EV charging more robust by making decisions for various safety systems.
- Environment Control System - An Environment Control System (ECS) continuously monitors multiple inputs from dust sensors, smoke sensors, humidity sensors, flooding sensors, temperature sensors, etc. This data is used to maintain an optimal environment and prevent any mishaps. It achieves this by controlling Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems.
- Fire Suppression System - like automatic sprinkler systems, water mist systems, and gaseous suppression systems for EV charging, are mandated by regulations like FM DS 5-33 and NFPA 855. Other Fire Suppression Systems can also be used that have passed tests, like UL 9540A (a testing method for thermal runaway in batteries).
- Thermal Management System (TMS) - manages the heat generated by the batteries (Thermal Runway) and their components so that the optimal temperature is maintained. This prevents explosions and fires in the battery module/cell.
These Safety control systems need to communicate with the Energy Management System, including the Battery Management System and the Power Conversion System, to ensure safe charging of the batteries by power balancing, cell balancing, and data logging to avoid overcharging, over-discharging and avoid malfunction.
A pictorial representation of protection layers.
Further, on the side of EV charging, the Dynamic Load Manager (DLM) should also be tuned to environmental conditions to ensure temperature, moisture are kept in control, while charging EVs. The key functions of a DLM are essential for better EV charging experience (see previous blog) and its safety is especially core to driving good customer experience and profitability of the Charge Point Operator.
With constant safety enhancements in Battery Boosted EV charging systems the global failure rates have fallen by 97% from 2018 to 2023. This is due to the focus by both private players and governments on improving safety standards for battery boosted EV chargers. Before investing in a Battery boosted EV charger, CPOs should refer to the safety standards set by the government and make decisions accordingly. A list of these safety standards is available for you in the FAQ section.
While safety features might look like an expense at first, it is a critical investment against catastrophic damage. CPOs will do well to prioritize safety features to enhance system life and drive optimal performance to EV charging
World-class safety features ensure that your battery boosted EV charger avoids any additional repair costs over time and reduces the risk of non-compliance with standards. A well-designed safety infrastructure ensures long life and optimal performance of a Charge Point Operator - leading to a better customer experience.
Connect with our engineers at Exicom and learn how our Harmony Boost solution provides the best safety features. We consider safety as a non-negotiable so that CPOs can focus on driving up their business results.
While safety features might look like an expense at first, it is a critical investment against catastrophic damage. CPOs will do well to prioritize safety features to enhance system life and drive optimal performance to EV charging
World-class safety features ensure that your battery boosted EV charger avoids any additional repair costs over time and reduces the risk of non-compliance with standards. A well-designed safety infrastructure ensures long life and optimal performance of a Charge Point Operator - leading to a better customer experience.
Connect with our engineers at Exicom and learn how our Harmony Boost solution provides the best safety features. We consider safety as a non-negotiable so that CPOs can focus on driving up their business results.
