AC/DC

The energy transition does not stop at companies either. Company fleets are increasingly being converted to e-vehicles and the energy required on a daily basis is increasingly being produced locally and decentrally directly on the company premises, e.g. using our own photovoltaic system. These developments bring economic and ecological advantages on the one hand, but on the other hand they pose the challenge of networking the individual subsystems – energy generation, charging management and fleet management – in such a way that efficient, automated fleet management is created. The Green Energy Lab project AC / DC is facing up to this challenge.

Increasing the attractiveness of e-vehicles and reducing emissions through networked and automated charging devices

For the success of innovative and holistic fleet management, automated charging solutions for e-vehicles are being developed in the AC / DC project. The integration into the energy network takes place by means of load, fleet and charging management systems. The automated charging robots used for this purpose offer users a high level of operating convenience, such as the automatic connection of the e-vehicle to the charging device and the connection to the necessary communication interfaces of the management software. The technology in the charging device also enables wireless communication with the vehicle. This means that the charging robot recognizes at any time when a suitable vehicle is within its range and automatically carries out the charging process. The networked charging devices and the energy supply are coordinated using an algorithm, depending on the energy available from the local generation system and the required fleet parameters. The central coordination of the subsystems increases the proportion of self-consumption of generation systems, for example photovoltaic systems, which helps to relieve the power grid. The overall concept thus promotes a more efficient use of renewable energy and subsequently increases the attractiveness of the use of electric vehicles for several target groups (companies, car sharing, taxis, private customers). The expectation is a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and cost savings for the operator.

After analyzing the technical, organizational, legal and customer-specific requirements for automated fleet management, the test of the derived prototype concept (hardware + software) takes place on the premises of Energie Graz under real conditions. The optimization takes place in the course of the project.