Smart_E_Park project

The Langer Graben multi-storey car park in Schwäbisch Hall was thoroughly refurbished from 2020 to 2022. In the course of the renovation of the multi-storey car park P1: Langer Graben, one of the four parking levels with 108 parking spaces was first fully equipped with charging points with intelligent grid connection for e-vehicles as part of this pilot project. The car park was able to reopen on 15 October 2021. In addition to the renewal of the entire technology, the renovation also included a brighter appearance and the integration of a colour guidance system for better orientation.

• How can many charging points be integrated into the existing supply structure as cost-effectively as possible without major investments?
• How can peak charging loads be avoided?
• How can the electricity grid be stabilised by charging e-cars?
• How can the charging points be distributed as efficiently as possible?
• How can e-mobility be seamlessly integrated into public transport?
• What can viable operator models look like?

E-charging stations were installed, each with two charging points with a maximum charging capacity of 22 kilowatts. For the cabling of the charging stations, an innovative cascaded connection system with intelligent distribution boxes (for up to five charging points each) was planned and implemented at the house connection, parking deck distribution and sub-distribution level. This made it possible to implement the cabling in the multi-storey car park much more cost-effectively and with considerably less copper than in previous implementations. In addition to the controllers in the distribution boxes, further controllers were installed per parking level and a central controller in the main distribution area. Through this cascaded intelligence, a highly efficient charging load management was realised that efficiently avoids local overloads in the distribution and also ensures grid-serving operation through the connection to the Venios system (grid status forecast) of the municipal utility. A possible future bidirectional use of the vehicle batteries was also taken into account and prepared.

As a scientific partner, HFT Stuttgart supported the joint project by developing AI-based methods for predicting and evaluating charging cycles for intelligent charging load management and providing scientific support during implementation. Data on charging behaviour and the utilisation of the charging infrastructure was collected via monitoring, which was used to analyse the efficiency and effectiveness of the developed methods. This enabled the latter to be optimised and prepared for further dissemination. In addition, HFT Stuttgart developed an innovative and intuitive prototype mobile application for charging point reservation and real-time monitoring of the charging process.