Hypermotion THINK TANK: Why the Lights Won't Go Out Despite the Shift to E-Mobility

The first THINK TANK by VISION Mobility during the Hypermotion in Frankfurt was titled: Why the light continues to shine despite electrification: How smart charging and load management can intelligently regulate network and connection performance. All three participants agreed that this is easily possible. Because Stefan Baumann, Key Account Manager at the Munich technology company "The Mobility House," has been doing nothing else for years. His company supports various customers in exactly this: The customer base ranges from small company fleets and multi-family homes to large fleets and projects where an entire island aims to become CO2-free. While in the first cases much can be solved through controlled charging, the CO2-free island concept also includes using cars as buffer storage, as well as giving their old batteries a second life in a storage system that can buffer 132 kWh.  

Cars as buffer storage: What about spontaneity?

Interestingly, the second speaker, Christoph Erni, founder and CEO of Juice Technology AG, shared Stefan Baumann's opinion regarding smart charging, especially since Juice offers exactly the products needed for this. However, he had a different view on the topic of "Cars as Buffer Storage", as he believed it would take away the freedom and spontaneity that characterize personal transportation. Even in fleets, he viewed this critically because, firstly, the vehicles would be "stressed" with additional charging and discharging cycles and, if one spontaneously decides to use the vehicle for a long drive despite having previously indicated that it could be used as storage, it might not be available due to prior commitments to provide power or forego charging. Driving with an almost empty battery is problematic.

Smart load management yes, but also sufficient connection performance

The third participant, Lukas Schmitt, a project developer at MVV Enamic, also advises ensuring enough connection performance and expansion potential based on his experience. The Mannheim-based company, which is evolving from a regional energy provider to a nationwide service provider, is currently working on increasing the number of charging points at Linde in Pullach from 22 to a triple-digit number. Just through smart load management? No, according to Schmitt, this would massively help reduce power demand as it can be perfectly controlled and allocated, but to take this significant step, it is necessary to consider the connection performance and the substation in the planning.

What does this mean?

The conclusion was clear: In the future, intelligent load and charging management will be indispensable. This is necessary not only to prevent the connection performance and power demand from growing indefinitely as mobility gradually becomes extensively electrified. The connection performance and substation should not be completely overlooked. Additionally, cars could be used as large buffer storage—or even better: their used batteries, which may no longer be optimal for vehicles, can still do a great job for years in a stationary buffer storage. As all three speakers have learned from their own and their customers' experiences: No one wants to be bothered with all the effort involved!