Franklin Electric Launches Intelligent Switchgear to Support Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Rollout

Franklin Electric is entering the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure space with the launch of the NexPhase Smart EV Switchgear.

As part of Franklin Electric’s new EV Systems product line, NexPhase is a turnkey switchgear solution with the infrastructure required between utility power and up to four 150 kW Level 3 DC fast chargers. NexPhase is built to support the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) formula program, helping to enable EV charging site owners to maintain NEVI’s 97% charger uptime requirements while minimizing installation, maintenance, and operating costs.

Up to 25% of public U.S. EV chargers are out of operation at any given time, with these outages often going undetected until a technician is physically present. The embedded NexPhase monitoring system allows operators to remotely identify outages, troubleshoot and cycle power to EV chargers to bring them back online, helping to maintain uptimes, mitigate outages and fulfill NEVI uptime reporting requirements.

By combining all EV charging electrical infrastructure into one enclosure, NexPhase eliminates the additional resources, time, and supply chain difficulties often associated with designing, sourcing, and installing a traditional mixed-manufacturer post-and-frame switchgear system.

NexPhase switchgear comes assembled, pre-wired and factory tested, requiring utility and EV charger connections for installation. With a shortage of electricians qualified for EV equipment installation, NexPhase allows site owners and electrical contractors to execute more EV charger projects without increasing their workforces.

In addition to consolidating switchgear components into a single footprint, NexPhase features advanced intelligence to protect EV charging sites. Features include EV charger crash detection, flammable vapor monitoring, flood detection, pest/rodent mitigation, and E-stop integration capabilities.