Anyone who drives up to University of Reutlingen in an electric car will now find a suitable socket for their vehicle. The first charging station has now gone into operation in the university car park. However, the blue pillars are not only intended to simply supply electricity, but above all to provide insights into dynamic load management and the coupling of different sectors in the renewable energy system of the future.
This is one of the reasons why the new charging stations are integrated into the Neckar-Alb virtual power plant. Analysis and specifications of schedules for the charging stations come from the central control system of the virtual power plant, the SE²DIRECTOR from AVAT. Together with the SE²OPTIMIZER, the corresponding demand side management system, it uses power exchange prices, receives price forecasts and optimizes the total costs for the creation of schedules. The necessary demand forecasts are created by the software itself using - among other things - artificial intelligence (AI),.
The electricity for the charging stations is supplied by 16 photovoltaic systems with a total output of over 400 kWp. On sunny weekends, the university can already feed electricity into the public grid instead of buying electricity. In the future, this surplus electricity is to be used preferentially for climate-neutral charging of the electric vehicles of visitors, students and employees.
The charging stations are being built as part of the project "Gemeinschaftsdienliche Energie-Lade Zellen" (GELaZ), which is funded by the State Ministry of the Environment (Landesumweltministerium Baden-Württemberg) as part of the INPUT project. In addition to the sub-project at University of Reutlingen, it also includes the development of community charging infrastructure at different locations by ISC Konstanz and the Ludwigsburg public utility company. The project will run until the end of the year and grants an extra bonus to university members in Reutlingen: Until the end of the project, they can use the charging infrastructure free of charge with an e-charging card for their electric car.
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