Smarte Ladesäulen

Funding period: 1 January 2020 – 31 December 2022

Funding: ERDF – LeitmarktAgentur.NRW / Funding reference KESW-1-2-031A

Project description:

Currently, electric vehicles are connected to the mains via charging stations or sockets and are usually charged at the connection’s full charging capacity until the vehicle’s battery management system reduces the charging power depending on the battery’s state of charge.

There is no optimisation of the charging process – taking into account the time the vehicle is expected to remain at the parking location, as well as the user’s requirement for how ‘full’ the battery should be at a minimum or maximum when setting off. In an energy system where electric vehicles make up the majority – e.g. 40 million passenger cars in Germany – it will be technically almost impossible and economically unviable to maintain this ‘conventional charging strategy’ due to the additional grid and charging capacity required, and because of the fluctuating, supply-dependent electrical output from renewable energy sources. In order to make the best possible use of renewable energy sources that depend on supply availability, reduce curtailment and, at the same time, limit the costs of expanding the electricity grid infrastructure, it will be essential in future to make the existing electricity system more flexible by increasing the flexibility of demand and/or through storage technologies. E-mobility offers both: the potential to make demand for electrical energy and power more flexible, whilst also providing additional electricity storage capacity.

The aim of the project is to use the ‘smart charging points’ developed to incentivise lower prices through competition amongst energy suppliers and to promote flexible user behaviour. In several demonstration projects, the charging points are being intensively tested by the project partners using the developed ‘ecosystem’ comprising charging point navigation, an optimisation backend and modern front-end solutions for customer communication, and the impacts, opportunities and risks for the distribution networks in the two participating network areas in the districts of Heinsberg and Düren will be comprehensively assessed.

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