Flexible EV Charge Point Management | Renewable Energy Integration

With Gateway Connect and the Smart Charging Platform, FLEXeCHARGE offers flexible EV charge point management using renewable energy sources. Wireless Logic ensures network connectivity through Conexa.

Max Brandt, Dr Robert Brehm and Jan Köster had a vision: to intelligently control charge point stations in order to charge EVs as needed while flexibly integrating renewable energies.

The Danish-German startup FLEXeCHARGE was founded in 2019, based in Copenhagen. With Gateway Connect and the Smart Charging Platform, the FLEXeCHARGE team have developed a charge point station solution for charge point operators. By being able to predict parking duration times, electric vehicles can be charged when the grid power is readily available, taking advantage of the lowest electricity prices offered by dynamic tariffs.

The Connect gateway installed on site servers as an integration point for external electricity meters, PV-systems or battery storage systems. The gateway is compatible with all DC and AC charging stations. Charge Point Operators (CPO’s) are protected against possible grid failures as charging is managed locally.

Load and energy usage can be managed remotely with the Smart Charging Platform. In addition, the Smart Charging Platform can monitor real-time charging currents and receive notifications on all connected charge points. CPO’s to control charging loads with preferences based on time, energy and RFID.

Looking ahead to future flexible electricity tariffs, FLEXeCHARGE is especially well-suited for charging areas with longer parking periods. This includes locations such as multi-storey car parks, company car parks, or hotel garages. FLEXeCHARGE CEO Max Brandt states, “Larger hotels, for instance, can achieve cost savings of 50 – 60,000 euros per year quite easily.”

One of FLEXeCHARGE’s flagship projects is the recently inaugurated charging station at the ScandiPark car park in Handewitt. Alpitronic’s eight HYC300 hyperchargers, with a total output of 2,400 kW, simultaneously power 16 charge points with up to 300 kilowatts. High Power Charging (HPC) enables electric vehicles to cover up to 100 kilometers within 5 minutes.

Renewable energies cover 100% of the system’s electricity requirements. A 25.5 kWp photovoltaic system, installed on a 300 square meter roof area, utilizes its electricity output for both self-consumption and charging purposes. The FLEXeCHARGE solution optimizes the utilization of various available energy sources.

Max Brandt explains, “The data volume needed to connect charging stations varies significantly depending on the project. For fast-charging stations with 20 charging processes per day, each station requires 500 to 600 MB of data volume per month. In other scenarios, such as company car parks with only two charging processes per day, 100 – 150 MB are sufficient. This highlights our reliance on a flexible overall solution for all our projects.”

Conexa, Wireless Logic’s Network for Things, offers this flexibility due to its advanced management and control capabilities. With an adjustable tariff, the tariff that is actually reached with the data volume used is billed per month – without having to commit to a higher tariff on a permanent basis.

FLEXeCHARGE uses a basic tariff from Wireless Logic that corresponds to the data traffic generated during normal operation. If the data volume exceeds the basic tariff in a month, the correspondingly higher tariff is used. However, the system only charges this tariff in the month it is used. If data consumption returns to normal levels in the following month, it automatically reverts to the lower tariff. This flexibility means that FLEXeCHARGE is not bound to a higher tariff, allowing it to absorb performance peaks without incurring more expensive run-on-rate costs.

"It is not possible for us to predict the required data volume across the board, as we manage a large number of different projects with a wide variety of utilisation profiles. We have to gather experience depending on the location and application scenario. With Wireless Logic, we have found a partner that offers precisely this flexibility."

FLEXeCHARGE

With Gateway Connect and the Smart Charging Platform, FLEXeCHARGE offers flexible EV charge point management using renewable energy sources. Wireless Logic ensures network connectivity through Conexa.

Background

Max Brandt, Dr Robert Brehm and Jan Köster had a vision: to intelligently control charge point stations in order to charge EVs as needed while flexibly integrating renewable energies.

The Challenge

The Solution

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