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The grid connection was the bottleneck. So we took it out of the loop.

Conventional fast chargers pull their full output straight off the grid. Ours don't. Here is how an SAEV station is built, and why it changes which sites are possible.

The station

From

10 kW in. 120 kW+ out.

A 272 kWh SolarMD battery fills slowly from a small grid connection, then releases full fast-charging power the moment a car plugs in.

Architecture

One shared DC bus.

Energy comes in slowly, from the grid or the sun. The battery holds it. DC-DC dispensing sends it to the car at full power.

The energy edge

We choose when to buy electricity.

A grid-tied charger buys energy when a car arrives, which on a winter weekday evening is the most expensive electricity Eskom sells. Our stations charge the battery off-peak and standard only. Never peak. The battery makes the tariff a decision instead of an accident.

Time-of-use across a winter weekday

Leveraging time-of-use, and sparing the grid when it matters most.

Charging. The battery tops up through the day and fills overnight.
Standard and off-peak
Never. The battery carries the station through.
Peak

Eskom's weekday time-of-use periods in the high-demand season, June to August.

Why it matters

Built for the grid we actually have.

  • The connection no longer sets the speed.

    120 kW+ out of a 10 kW supply. The battery decides how fast the car charges. The site decides how fast the battery refills.

  • Power outages are a non-event.

    The station is islanded by design. Both bays stay live through an outage. The driver sees nothing.

  • The host's demand stays where it was.

    Grid draw is slow, smooth and controllable. On a time-of-use tariff, charging off-peak adds nothing to the site's chargeable demand. We put that in the agreement.

  • Fewer conversions, fewer losses.

    DC solar into a DC battery into a DC car. No round trips through AC.

Solar carport

Optional. Sensible where it fits.

A PV carport shades the bays and feeds the battery directly on the DC side. Surplus flows into the host's building at an agreed rate, well under what most sites pay Eskom at two in the afternoon. Sized per site.

Software

Bespoke monitoring and control.

SAEV's in-house developed CSMS integrates natively with MyPower24, SolarMD's EMS, for advanced control over energy management and optimisation. Paired with SAEV's proprietary ILB (Intelligent Load Balancing), it shares every available kilowatt across the chargers as conditions change, and never a kilowatt more. OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1 as standard.

SAEV's operator platform: network energy, revenue, sessions and charger health, live

Driver data never leaves the country. That's how it's built, not a clause in a contract.

Metering

Four meters per site. Three different numbers.

Energy bought at the grid meter and energy sold at the plug are not the same number. Our settlement engine never treats them as one.

  • Grid import, split by time-of-use period.

    What we owe the host.

  • Solar generation.

    The renewable fraction, and the surplus credited to the host.

  • Energy delivered at the connector.

    What the driver pays for.

  • Battery telemetry. State of charge, cycles, temperature.

    Never a billing source.

Specifications

Tech specs.

Charging output
120 kW+ DC
Connectors
2 × CCS2
Battery
272 kWh, LFP, SolarMD HV outdoor cabinet
Grid connection
From 10 kW
Grid charging window
Off-peak and standard only, never peak
Outage behaviour
Both bays remain live
Solar
Optional DC-coupled carport, surplus to host
Footprint
3 bays, re-striped to 2 charging bays with the unit centred
Protocol
OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1
Backend
In-house CSMS, self-hosted in South Africa
Authentication
App · QR · RFID/NFC tap

Got 10 kW to spare and three bays?

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