Grid-serving charging of electric vehicles with IO-ELON

The Flensburg-based software company IO-Dynamics is implementing grid-friendly charging in the ELBE project in Hamburg with cooperation partner LAN1. The joint cooperation includes 14 properties, with a total of 159 charging points being controlled by IO-ELON by the grid operator Stromnetz Hamburg in a grid-friendly manner.

Grid-serving charging according to § 14a EnWG with IO-ELON

The software company IO-Dynamics implements charging infrastructure for electric vehicles as a controllable consumption facility according to § 14a EnWG with network operator Stromnetz Hamburg and charge point operator LAN1.

The add-on feature "Reduced grid charges" of the charging and energy management software IO-ELON, which can be booked individually in addition to the standard features, enables the local grid operator to control the charging facilities in a grid-serving manner. By adapting the charging processes to the grid, users of the charging infrastructure contribute to an intelligent and stable power supply and help to avoid cost-intensive grid expansion. By allowing the grid operator to access their own charging infrastructure, end users benefit from lower electricity costs.

LAN1 built the charging infrastructure at the 14 properties and operates the charging points with the smart management and billing software. A total of 159 charging stations are controlled by the grid operator Stromnetz Hamburg with the IO-ELON charging and energy management system from IO-Dynamics. If the grid operator intervenes in the charging infrastructure as a controllable consumption device, IO-ELON reads out the control signal via OpenADR and reduces the power for the charging processes accordingly. After a control intervention, the charging and energy management automatically ensures that the power is increased again and any interrupted charging processes are restarted.

IO-ELON thus ensures that the charging stations are operational at all times, so that charging processes are automatically resumed after intervention by the grid operator. The vehicles are reliably charged and are available for electric driving.

The project in cooperation with LAN1 was funded as part of the ELBE project in Hamburg. 

Funding through the ELBE project

ELBE stands for Electrify Building for Electric Vehicles and is Germany's largest model project for the development and management of charging infrastructure in commercial areas and residential or commercial properties. The background of the project: to significantly expand network-compatible integrated charging points outside public spaces.

In the process, the installed charging points will be connected to the grid operator Stromnetz Hamburg via a standardized interface. The interface is based on the open communication protocol OpenADR, which enables the grid operator to temporarily adjust the performance of the charging processes to the capacity limits of the electricity grid. In return, the grid operator charges end consumers permanently reduced grid fees for enabling grid-serving control.