Charging electric vehicles (EV) with direct current brings enormous advantages. The LEM DCBM (DC Billing Meter) is an intelligent and compact meter for direct current consumption from 25 to 600 kW that is fully compliant with German calibration law.
A functioning charging infrastructure is crucial for global electromobility. Today's public charging infrastructure mainly offers alternating current, which leads to long charging times of 8 hours on average due to a low charging capacity of around 44 kW.
In order to reduce this charging time to just a few minutes, manufacturers of charging stations convert the alternating current outside the vehicle into direct current and now bypass the on-board charger (OBC) and supply the EV battery directly with direct current. With this method, the charging power can be increased to up to 400kW (DCBM 400) or 600kW (DCBM 600).
However, the conversion from AC to DC leads to power losses that do not have to be paid for by the end user, i.e. the owner of the EV. Therefore, an electricity meter is placed after the conversion stage so that effectively only the energy transferred to the electric vehicle can be accurately recorded and billed.
The LEM DCBM meets the requirements for interoperability and data security, easy and fast retrofitting of already installed charging stations and the ability to provide high power up to 600A/1000V. The DC meter is designed for future data transmission requirements and offers Ethernet communication. It supports the HTTPS/REST protocol for quick integration into charging stations.
The DCBM was developed by LEM in collaboration with customers and standardization bodies. The biggest challenge was to define and develop a DC meter that meets the applicable standards and the diverse requirements of the charging station manufacturers.
LEM products
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DCBM 600
Energy meters for electric vehiclesAvailable to order -
DCBM 400
Energy meters for electric vehiclesAvailable to order