Today, one of the greatest obstacles to EV adoption, is charging infrastructure. There are simply not enough charging points or charging capacity. By utilizing smart control, however, it’s possible to exploit capacity and flexibility in the existing infrastructure. Electric vehicles (EVs) represent a vastly growing share of energy loads and are part of creating a carbon-free world and reducing environmental pressures. The research project, ChargeFlex , has explored how today’s energy system can be exploited and adapted to accommodate the increasing need for EV charging. Instead of expanding existing physical infrastructure, it’s possible to utilize smart control to exploit existent capacity and flexibility, which is much more cost-effective for all players. 40 Percent Improvement The objective of ChargeFlex was to increase EV charging capacity by better exploiting local energy resources. Through the project we demonstrated that it was possible to achieve an improvement of 40 percent.

This can be done by utilizing data-gathering technology from multiple sources. Data include weather, the electricity grid, consumption of all loads in a building, solar production, batteries and EV chargers. The collected data is used to predict how things will look in the future. When you have sufficient data about a situation and know which conditions you are working under, either trying to reduce cost or maximize capacity, you can build mathematical models to find the best way of controlling those resources; thus optimizing. You might also want to read: Transforming EVs: From challenge to utility infrastructure asset How to Exploit Capacity Let’s have a look at an example outside of our own office building: While working with the project, we wanted to put up more charging points, but the electrical contractor told us that considering the size of the fuse and transformer, they couldn’t install more. Because one must calculate the theoretical […]