Vattenfall/netgo/Gewobag: Charging at the office when electricity is cheap
In an office building of Gewobag in Berlin, energy provider Vattenfall has installed an intelligent control system that schedules charging processes mainly during times when a lot of renewable energy is available and electricity prices on the market are low. As part of a pilot project with netgo GmbH, which has rented 20 parking spaces with charging stations in the building, the company is investigating how this control affects user behavior and what savings can be achieved. For this purpose, the company has set up an interface to the EEX electricity exchange and developed an algorithm that reduces the charging speed during particularly expensive hours. The electricity price is especially favorable when a lot of renewable energy is fed into the grid. This is precisely where the Smart Charging system comes into play: It ensures that vehicles are preferably charged when the share of green electricity is particularly high and the price is thus as low as possible.
"Office properties are ideal for such applications, as vehicles often stand at the charging stations at midday – that is, when solar power generation is at its highest. At the same time, it is usually ensured that the battery is fully charged by the end of the workday," explains Franziska Schuth-Krohn, Head of Business Development E-Mobility Germany.
A central focus of the project is the question of how users respond to the intelligent control. Initial findings show that the interventions in the charging process are well compatible with the demands of the workday, according to the provider.
"By not stopping the charging process during expensive times, but merely slowing it down, the impact on employees' charging behavior is usually minimal. For employees who do not spend an entire workday at the location, there will continue to be non-optimized charging options to ensure that full charging capacity can be reached in a short time," explains Swen Wagenknecht, Head of Business Support at netgo.
Sustainable solutions with an innovative character are also at the forefront for Gewobag. Great importance is attached to offering tenants forward-thinking and sustainable options, also as a contribution to more climate protection, emphasizes Peter Burgfried, authorized signatory and Head of Commercial Property Management at Gewobag. Not only the costs for electricity procurement, but also the ecological footprint should be reduced through technologies like smart charging. A study by the "National Charging Infrastructure Control Center" explains that by optimizing charging prices, operational CO2 equivalent emissions can be halved, the provider states. Thus, the technology actively contributes to the energy transition as it not only optimizes the use of renewable energies but also supports grid stability by reducing peak loads in the power grid. At the same time, electricity costs for users would be reduced.
Translated automatically from German.“This type of optimization shows how technological innovation and ecological responsibility can go hand in hand to effectively support climate goals,” explains Schuth-Krohn.
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