PcVue supervises the world´s largest experiment with rechargeable hybrid vehicles. ARC Informatique

Electricité de France (EDF), Toyota and Strasbourg area council have selected PcVue SCADA software, developed by ARC Informatique, for a joint three-year project titled Kléber. The crucial factors in the selection process were value for money, short lead times and industrial know-how.
In May 2010 Toyota, EDF and the Strasbourg City and Urban Community launched a joint project named Kléber for full-scale demonstration of rechargeable hybrid vehicles (RHV). This three-year programme aims to study user expectations of RHV technology and recharging infrastructure, to verify RHV performance in real situations and to develop methods for evaluating fuel consumption and CO2 emission. This experiment is vital as Toyota is now marketing a plug-in version of its well-known Prius range.
The Kléber programme is part of a world-wide project rolled out by Toyota, with 600 Prius RHVs also being tested in Japan, the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia. For EDF it is an opportunity to test the charging facilities in practice. “Experiments are essential for assessing technical solutions, usage and economic models”, explains Igor Czerny, EDF´s Electric Transport and Vehicles Director. The Kléber project is the largest of its kind in the world with a fleet of 70 RHVs and a network of 145 charging stations, almost all connected via 3G data links, to be tested by selected users.
The stations are installed at the roadside (8 stations), in public car parks (18), at the vehicle owners´ homes (44) and their workplace car parks (75). The EDF and Toyota teams have analyzed the data gathered from the technical outputs of the charging stations, recordings from the RHVs during visits to the dealer, plus user questionnaires and field surveys.
To manage the remotely metered charging data from the EDF stations, the sponsors of the Kléber project selected PcVue SCADA software developed by ARC Informatique. “This is a proven and reliable industrial tool that is used to supervise numerous devices in many large-scale projects around the world.” states Thierry Meunier, project manager at EDF Electric Transport and Vehicles. “Our choice was influenced by its meeting our specified requirements for performance and value for money.”