Voltpost, AT&T Partner On Connected Streetlight EV Chargers

Voltpost and AT&T are partnering to retrofit streetlights with EV chargers connected over the AT&T ... [+] IoT network.

Streetlights are brightening the future for more convenient public battery electric vehicle charging. The latest example is from tech company Voltpost, which is installing, or planning to retrofit streetlights with level two public EV chargers in several cities including New York, Chicago and Detroit.

To boost the effectiveness of its current and future units, Voltpost and AT&T struck a deal providing IoT connectivity for streetlight charging units across Michigan and the Detroit metro area, the companies announced Monday.

“Having that internet connection enables us to manage the charger, helping the reliability from the cloud,” said Voltpost co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Prosserman, in an interview. “We have charging station management system, the dashboard, where we can see each charger, the utilization per plug and down to the component level to identify if there is anything that requires servicing.”

“Connectivity also helps optimize the usage of charging infrastructure by providing data-driven insights for better planning and resource allocation, ultimately enhancing the overall user experience and reliability of the charging network,” added Joe Mosele, vice president, AT&T Connected Solution in emailed replies to our questions.

AT&T’s connectivity uses advanced IoT technology integrating cutting-edge cellular networks with embedded SIM cards and secure cloud platforms, according to Mosele.

EV parked at a Voltpost streetlight-mounted charging station.

Michigan represents just the first instance of AT&T’s involvement with Voltpost as the company looks to expand across the country.

Each Voltpost installed on a streetlight has between two and four charging outlets, according to Prosserman. Those installed on lights at curbside parking spaces generally have two, while those on streetlights located in parking lots, where there is more room, would have up to four.

The idea, he says, is to “decarbonize mobility” by removing a big obstacle to EV adoption for those consumers who do not live in single-family housing with garages where a home charger can be installed, and others who are anxious about the general availability of public charging stations.

He uses the term “democratizing charging access.”

Indeed the company says its efforts align with AT&T’s gigaton goal - to help business customers reduce 1 billion metric tons of CO2 by 2035 through connectivity backed solutions such as fiber, 5G and IoT.

In addition, AT&T connectivity provides an important service beyond charging, Prosserman explained, noting, “these vehicles are all connected and have software, and ultimately, people don't have a place to update that software, and so we can effectively act as a hub, similar to the way people go to a coffee shop to grab a coffee and connect to a Wi Fi network. In this instance, we can provide a charge as well as the ability to offer downloads for future software update.”

Voltposts are powered with electricity from the grid, but in a way that eliminates the cost and disruption of digging trenches for power lines.

When power for the streetlight comes from underground, a single cable is pulled through the existing conduit, explained Prosserman. When power is overhead, a line is brought down to the Voltpost, again, without the need to dig a trench for an additional power line.

Rendering of Beam Global BeamSpot combination streetlight and EV charging station.

Voltpost is coming on the scene just as San Diego-based Beam Global has introduced a similar concept called, BeamSpot. It also involves retrofitting streetlights with EV chargers with one big difference.

“We also run the electricity from the wind into the batteries, and we run the electricity from the solar into the batteries, and it turns out, when you combine all three sources of electricity, now you can meaningfully charge an electric vehicle,” explained Beam Global CEO Desmond Wheatley, in an interview for an earlier story.

So far Voltpost has raised $8.7 million in private financing with the last round led by RWE Energy Transition Investments and Impact America Fund, according to the company. It has also secured $1.5 million in grants to deploy chargers.

“We now have about 120 to 150 chargers in contract, where we're going through the site assessment to deploy in New York, in the greater Detroit area and Chicago, and we have contracts to soon be announced in additional states, I can just say, from Connecticut to California, really, spanning the entire country,” said Prosserman.

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