Smart Charging Community: A Framework for sustainable EV-charging in Living-Quarters and Energy-Communities
Energy Innovations & Demonstration Projects Lifecycle Costs & Economic Efficiency Smart Cities & Energy Concepts Energy Services & Business Models
Project Partners:
- Energyfamily GmbH
- ChargeandMore Technologies GmbH
- RISC Software GmbH
- AVL List GmbH
Project Description
The SmaChaCo research project has set itself the goal of increasing the share of renewable electricity used through automated demand-side management.
This should not only reduce dependence on fossil energy sources, but also offer financial benefits.
The project focuses on combining two rapidly growing areas: Electric vehicle charging and electricity originating from renewable energy communities.
This represents a further step towards sustainable mobility, relieving the burden on the electricity grid and thus expanding renewable energy generation.
The overarching project goals are
- Development of technical interfaces and optimization solutions for self-consumption on hierarchically ascending levels by using the e-vehicles as flexible and bidirectional storage systems
- Development of cost-optimized charging strategies for users, taking into account grid serviceability at the house connection and the local transformer station by means of load management at building level
Approach and methodology of the SmaChaCo project
Specifically, the following technical solutions are to be developed:
- Optimization algorithms and load control applications
- Creation of a platform architecture with interfaces between vehicle, charging station backend, building energy management and EC billing software
- Integration of smart charging and V2G into existing charging and energy management systems
Graz case study
The roll-out of e-mobility is particularly complex in large-volume residential buildings: On the one hand for organizational and social reasons (decisions depend on the consensus of many individuals, community models are very complex for laypersons) and on the other hand for technical reasons (existing house connections are not designed for large loads from many EVs). Projects in apartment buildings are therefore associated with great economic risk for providers, meaning that this customer segment (especially in the area of condominiums) is only served sparingly.