Flexible overnight: powering electric vehicles at home without grid overloads

The planned phase-out of nuclear power in 2022 and coal-fired power generation in the 2030s, as well as the further expansion of renewable energies, threaten the security of supply of the power system. "Due to the enormous growth in electric vehicles and charging points, the challenges in power system operation are intensifying," said Mark Kuprat, research associate, chair of energy distribution and high voltage engineering. "Operating costs and demands on grid operation management are increasing. Companies are increasingly asking us for local load management to prevent overloading of electrical equipment."

The goal of the researchers in the ismartC transfer project is an individualized charging management system that integrates private households. "People come home from work and charge their vehicles after work at about the same time. The result is that the power grids are overloaded," said Saman Amanpour, co-founder on the project. "Our process allows us to adjust charging times so that they can be automated and spread out over the evening, night or early morning, for example."

The Integrated Smart Charging (ISC) system provides the flexibility needed to safely operate power grids, reduce electricity purchase costs by up to 50 percent without limiting the mobility needs of electric vehicle users*. Researchers Mark Kuprat, Saman Amanpour, Mikhail Ashkerov and Bastian Garnitz are developing a high-performance IT infrastructure, a database management system, a smartphone application, and the associated interfaces and server environments.

The ismartC project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) as part of the EXIST research transfer program (EFT) with 700,000 euros. The project is located at the BTU chair of energy distribution and high voltage engineering for the duration from July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022 and is supervised by the Project Management Jülich (PTJ).

The company ePHANT, which is currently in the process of being founded, is a spin-off of the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg that will transfer the many years of research work in the field of grid-serving and electricity market-based integration of charging processes for electric vehicles into a commercial product. The spin-off emerged from the EXIST research transfer project Integrated Smart Charging (ISC). Founders Mark Kuprat, Saman Amanpour, Mikhail Ashkerov and Bastian Garnitz plan to launch ePHANT Mobility Solutions in early 2023.