RESEARCH AND INNOVATION - Smart charging as an enabler of Green Building Neighbourhoods (GBNs)

In the PROBONO project, mobility at the scale of Living Labs is envisioned as an enabler of GBNs. So, how can mobility be efficiently integrated within a GBN?

In this latest article from PROBONO the project explains how vehicle electrification and smart charging approaches can contribute to the development of sustainable neighbourhoods.

date: 12/12/2023

The electrification of transport is considered a major driver of the green transition. But at the same time it is also clear that the deployment of vast amounts of electric vehicles (EVs) in our neighbourhoods will have a massive impact on the current electricity systems, mainly in terms of installed capacity and power handling. This is due to the fact that users’ EV charging patterns may lead to intense peaks in power demand, which require extra investments in infrastructure to update electric networks, provided that EV charging infrastructure continue to be based on regular, unidirectional charging points.

Smart charging, enabled by bi-directional chargers can be the key to avoid this kind of problems.

By using bi-directional chargers, power can be transferred either from the grid to the EVs, or the other way around. The main objective of smart charging is to manage EV charging demands intelligently, so that it doesn’t destabilise the overall electric network. For this purpose, two main strategies are put in place:

load balancing (shifting EV charging demand to off-peak hours), and
peak shaving (use energy stored in EV to reduce the intensity of peak demand).

Read more from the article on the PROBONO website to learn about how smart charging works, how they support GBNs and who can benefit from these solutions.