Electric vehicle charger tripping

[PlantElectricianCT]

Hello all,
I am a licensed electrician in Connecticut employed by a chemical plant. We were told to put in a temporary outlet for an electric truck to use for moving loads as a trial. We found a spare 150amp breaker and used this to feed a 480volt outlet. When we plug the charger in all is good. The charger has an 80 amp breaker in it, when we plug the truck into charge the 80 amp breaker trips. Our main breaker is ok. The company is saying we are feeding it with too high of an amperage and that’s the problem. To me this doesn’t make sense, the way I see it doesn’t matter what amperage I feed the 80 breaker with. Does this make sense to anyone? I just want to make sure I am not missing anything.

 

[augie47]

That is not the problem.
Can you provide more detail.... a picture of the nameplate would be great.

 

[jim dungar]

If the 80A breaker is internal to the charger it is not your problem. There is nothing external you can do to cause or prevent too much current going to the charger. The cure of the tripping is the manufacturer's problem to solve.

 

[PlantElectricianCT]

That is not the problem.
Can you provide more detail.... a picture of the nameplate would be great

I cannot really get a picture at the moment (plant rules) but for reference we are using a heliox fast dc 50 charger and the truck is tico electric powered by Volvo penta. Our wires have megged good back to breaker. Me and the other electrician on site didn’t believe this to be the issue and actually believe the issue is the truck as this is the 2nd charger they sent. I just wanted to see if maybe I was missing something.

 

[Little Bill]

Hello all,
I am a licensed electrician in Connecticut employed by a chemical plant. We were told to put in a temporary outlet for an electric truck to use for moving loads as a trial. We found a spare 150amp breaker and used this to feed a 480volt outlet. When we plug the charger in all is good. The charger has an 80 amp breaker in it, when we plug the truck into charge the 80 amp breaker trips. Our main breaker is ok. The company is saying we are feeding it with too high of an amperage and that’s the problem. To me this doesn’t make sense, the way I see it doesn’t matter what amperage I feed the 80 breaker with. Does this make sense to anyone? I just want to make sure I am not missing anything.

You don't feed "amperage" you provide voltage that can handle the amperage/current, along with conductors and OCPD for the size of the load.
You could feed it with 1200V on a 400A breaker, the load determines the current draw.
Time to tell the company to send a new truck.

 

[PlantElectricianCT]

You don't feed "amperage" you provide voltage that can handle the amperage/current, along with conductors and OCPD for the size of the load.
You could feed it with 1200V on a 400A breaker, the load determines the current draw.
Time to tell the company to send a new truck.

This is exactly what we have told them but they have been insistent to the point it made me question myself. My whole point is it I can feed it infused and the 80 amp breaker would now know any difference.

 

[tortuga]

That charger has 3 settings:
11 kW (~13-15 Amps)
19 kW (~23- 25 Amps)
50 kW (~61 - 65 Amps)

Try it on the lowest setting (11kw) and see if the truck charges, then if it works try it on the mid setting (19kw).
It could be the inrush is too large on the 50kW setting, to see this put a clamp meter on when you trun it on and set it to record max amps.
I have had issues with some heavy vehicles on chargers and settled on the mid setting.
If it trips on the lowest setting its likely the vehicle.