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Charging box Sales ban in Sweden for Non compliance to EU standards

Shamith Gambhir

I was going through the news of Swedish authorities “Elsalerhetverket” imposing a Ban on Easee chargers recently.

Easee is a renown Norwegian EVSE company with almost 100000 installations of EVSE in Sweden alone.

https://www.electrive.com/2023/03/15/elsalerhetverket-imposes-sales-ban-on-easee-wall-boxes-in-sweden/

 According to a ten-page letter from the Swedish supervisory authority Elsälerhetverket to Easee it is mentioned

"Contrary to the declaration, apparently no FI switch installed" - and this increases the risk of fire. In addition, some EU declarations are said not to have been fulfilled, which could also have an impact in other countries. There are several allegations that affect the safety of the product. The main accusation: "The operating instructions state that the product has a built-in FI circuit breaker. The product is not equipped with an earth leakage circuit breaker (30mA AC/6mA DC) as indicated in the instructions for use". So: "The instructions do not mention that the product must be preceded by a residual current circuit breaker if it is to be connected to the fixed network."

According to electrive.net, there are  “additional defects that go beyond the defects identified in the previous tests and investigations by the electrical safety authority. In addition to the lack of proof of the function of the RCD and DC protection, the product fails the overvoltage test LLLN->CP, which is a serious defect have also complained about "complete instructions for use".

According to Elsäkerhetsverket , the company stated in its EU declaration of conformity that the product conforms to the standards, but the opposite is the case. The product must meet all the requirements of the standards and not just selected parts. In addition, it was noticed during the examination that the labeling defects now listed had already been criticized in June 2021. This can have bad consequences. If the company cannot refute or eliminate the allegations, the worst that can happen is a sales ban. 

Most of the EVSE use the technique similar to Easee with RDC-DD inside the EVSE tripping the main relay.

There is a lot of confusion with this? can anyone clarify on the above issue?

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  • 0

    With regards to the relay breaking a fault current, the instructions state that a maximum of 10kA is allowable at the at the unit. 

    That's a heck of a fault current for relay/contactor contacts to break - there are many MCBs with full arc chutes that can't manage half of that. There must be some reliance on upstream protective device if there's nothing built-in. Despite a lot of searching I've still to find any relay/contactor manufacturer's information about breaking fault currents - which is perhaps not surprising as using a contactor as part of a ADS protective device isn't that common - in most circumstances relays are only required to close onto a fault, and that's a lot less demanding in arc quenching terms. I still have concerns about mid-level fault currents where the relay attempting to open in <<40ms will attempt be faster than an upstream MCB -- or indeed cartridge fuse.

       - Andy.

  • 0 in reply to AJJewsbury

    Indeed - breaking high currents with moving contacts alone can be surprisingly problematic - usually the contacts move apart alright, but the arc that is drawn between them means that the current is not interrupted. Then if nothing else opens the fault loop in short order the contacts will be heated by the rapidly expanding volume of plasma - to destruction probably in one operation of a fraction of a second. Contactors to break in such conditions are built with arc traps like an MCB- and cost accordingly.
    Equally - in a well designed system, who needs an RCD to break a 10kA fault ? That is the work of an upstream  fuse or MCB.

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  • 0 in reply to AJJewsbury

    Indeed - breaking high currents with moving contacts alone can be surprisingly problematic - usually the contacts move apart alright, but the arc that is drawn between them means that the current is not interrupted. Then if nothing else opens the fault loop in short order the contacts will be heated by the rapidly expanding volume of plasma - to destruction probably in one operation of a fraction of a second. Contactors to break in such conditions are built with arc traps like an MCB- and cost accordingly.
    Equally - in a well designed system, who needs an RCD to break a 10kA fault ? That is the work of an upstream  fuse or MCB.

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