Q: If some chargers are timing out, why does the CMS pause or reduce load balancing across all chargers? Why not continue managing the ones still responding?
A: The CMS does continue controlling the remaining chargers when it is safe to do so. However, if a charger that times out was expected to reduce output to free up capacity for others, the CMS must pause or recalculate to prevent overloading the site. This precaution ensures system safety, particularly when relying on BESS support.
Q: What happens to the remaining chargers when some time out? Are their outputs adjusted?
A: Yes, the CMS will issue a lower power setpoint to all chargers during the next load balancing cycle (to reflect, for example, a BESS ramp-down). However, chargers that previously timed out will not receive the new instruction. They remain at their last known (often higher) output. The system assumes all chargers are responsive unless flagged otherwise, which can lead to discrepancies.
Q: Is there a way for the CMS to remember which chargers timed out or failed?
A: Not currently, but this is a known limitation. A feature is being planned to introduce an internal "failure state" for chargers or connectors. This would function like existing offline or OCPP Faulty statuses, allowing BetterFleet to exclude unresponsive devices from load balancing calculations until they recover.
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