Charge management in the underground car park

Electric cars charge at around 30 A. A typical house connection for an apartment building is designed with 500 A - of which 400 A are reserved for the building. The 100 A left over for the charging infrastructure in the underground garage is already at its limit with three electric cars. And it's only a matter of time before the majority of cars run on electricity. Property owners are therefore faced with the question of how to solve tenant demand for charging stations.

A new, more powerful house connection is the most expensive solution - for the plant as well as for the homeowner. That's why charging management is usually used. After all, not every car needs to be charged at the same time. And hardly any vehicle uses the full range every day - the batteries are rarely completely empty. Most manufacturers of charging stations therefore offer a charging management system that decides which car is charged and when.

It becomes difficult when charging stations from different manufacturers are installed in the same underground parking garage. Which will probably be the case at many locations over time. EKZ has therefore worked with SCS to develop a charging management system based on the manufacturer-independent OCPP protocol. Martin Baldinger of EKZ reports on the experience with the 400 underground garages that now work with the system. Marcel Frei from SCS tells about the challenges during development and how the project is now being continued so that, for example, cars are charged with solar power, individual vehicles are given priority if users are willing to pay for it, or a connection to the house installation so that the underground car park can situationally draw exactly as much power as the house connection can provide.

Following the presentations, all participants are cordially invited to an aperitif. The event is open to all interested parties and will also be broadcast online.