Create a Load Balancing Group

This guide focuses on how to create the Load Balancing setup in Monta Hub. For a comprehensive explanation of the different components of Dynamic Load Balancing, you can read here.

Create a single-site Load Balancing Group

If the charge points are set-up within one Charging site in Monta, you should create a Load Balancing Group on a site level.

1. Open Charging sites from the left-side menu
2. Click to open the site page
3. Navigate to Load Balancing and click on Go to Load Balancing
4. Click on Create new group

Create a Multi-site Load Balancing Group

If you want to select charge points, that are set-up in different Charging sites, or do not belong to a site, then you need to access the Multi-site Load Balancing Portal.

1. Open Charging sites from the left-side menu
2. Click on Load Balancing
3. Click on Create new group

Fill in available amps and power distribution

1. Navigate to the General settings
2. Name the Load Balancing Group
3. Fill in Total amps available - The amps available per phase for both charging and the building
4. Select a type of Power distribution
   • Equal share = power is distributed equally among all charging cars on a site
   • First come, first served = Cars are prioritized by order of starting the charge
   • Locally managed – Easee = Only for Easee charge points + Perific meter setup
5. Click on Save changes
6. See the Group's information for reference

Add an external meter

In order to set Dynamic Load Balancing, you need set up and external meter, connect it to Monta, and add it to the Load Balancing Group. Monta currently supports Perific and ABB ModBus.

1. Click on + Add meter and select the type
2. Select the correct placement
   • Including charge points = Meter measures building + charge points being used
   • Excluding charge points = Meter measures only how many amps the building is using
3. Input a Dynamic buffer
   • A safety buffer to ensure that we are not exceeding the total capacity when the building’s consumption changes. Recommended value is the highest expected increase in the building’s consumption within one minute.
4. Input Fail-safe amps
   • Number of amps to use, if the meter cannot communicate current consumption to Monta.
5. Click on Save changes

Add or remove charge points

1. Click on Add or remove charge points
2. Use search bar to find charge points by address or serial number
3. Select the charge point/s
   • Selecting a charge point will automatically add it to the Load Balancing Groups
   • A charge point can belong to one Group at a time
   • Selecting a charge point with more than one connector will automatically add all connectors to the Group

Create a Sub-group

You can also create a Sub-group, which represents a subset of charge points, sharing the same available amps on the site. To create a Sub-group, click on Add sub-group

You can only add an external meter to the main group, not to a Sub-group.

Advanced settings

Once the charge point is added, you will be able to see the following information:

State - See if the charge point is Available, Busy or Unavailable.

Phase order - This is the order of the phases on the charge point. It is important that it is setup correctly. You can consult the electrician who has connected the wiring on the charge point to confirm the order. It is used for phase rotation.

Max Amps - The maximum amount of Amps that will be available for the charge point.

Prioritize - If you select to prioritize a charge point, this will be applied when distributing the current among the charge points in use.

Remember to click "Save Changes".

Please note that you cannot configure the advanced settings of charge points, if you are using a Locally Managed - Easee setup.

Setup Scheduled Load Balancing

1. In the Load Balancing section, click on ‘Load Balancing Portal’ and in the Load Balancing Groups section, click on Create new group.
   • Choose a name for the group, select the available amps, and determine the load balancing method: equal share, first-come-first-served, or locally managed (Easee).
     Whatever you choose here will not impact the configuration of Scheduled Load Balancing.
2. Create a Site In the Charge Points section, select the charge points you wish to add to the Load Balancing group by checking the boxes next to them. Once selected, confirm your choices to proceed.
3. After configuring the Load Balancing Group, scroll up on the page to the Schedule Amp Limits section.
4. Toggle on the Schedule Amp Limits option to enable this feature. From here, you can define specific time periods during which the amps should either:
   - Ramp down to 0 amps or another minimum value for energy-saving purposes, or
   - Be set to a specific maximum amp value to ensure availability during peak demand times
5. To create a schedule, select the desired days of the week from the dropdown menu.
6. Set the time range for the schedule by specifying the start and end times.
7. Enter the desired amp value for the selected time period.
8. Click Add Schedule to save the configuration.

Notes:

• Any time not scheduled will default to the total available amps for the site.
• When setting up the load balancing group and selecting the max amps, ensure that the value is a whole number. For example, fractional ampere values like 61.6A are not supported; the system will round down and allocate 61A instead. This means you must manually input 61 in the Max Amps field.
• If there is a sudden increase in used power on the site due to the schedules we recommend creating a few short schedules to ramp up the available current in steps.
  • Gradual ramp-up is only necessary for very large sites with a significant number of Charge Points. For most setups, this approach will not be required.