Making charging infrastructure economically viable

The roadshow initiated by the research project BANULA demonstrates how non-discriminatory charging for heavy-duty EVs can work in the future. Yesterday, the tour stopped at the Vector Campus in Stuttgart, where an electric truck was charged utilising the electricity roaming model, an approach that splits electricity procurement from charging infrastructure operation in terms of cost.

For the charging process, Vector deployed its own charging and load management system vCharM, which facilitates dynamic, grid-friendly charging. Combined with an external billing system, this setup provides a blueprint for companies seeking to optimise their infrastructure, for example, by integrating solar power from their own depot, offering public charging for third-party EVs, or enabling employees to charge company cars through their private electricity contracts.

In the energy roaming model, the provision of charging infrastructure is decoupled from the electricity supply contract. Infrastructure operators make their charging points available for a fee, while users bring their own electricity tariff to any of these points. The energy settlement occurs within a virtual balancing area, ensuring that electricity volumes are clearly allocated and transparently billed, without the need for central roaming platforms or redundant interfaces. This decreases complexity and opens up new opportunities for grid-oriented optimisation.

The underlying research project, BANULA (Creating Accessible and User-Friendly Charging Options), coordinated by Fraunhofer IAO, aims to make non-discriminatory charging infrastructure available nationwide in Germany. The state of Baden-Württemberg supports the rollout of a public truck charging network in the regional road system, with clear requirements such as a high share of PV integration and user-friendly billing models. The successful implementation at Vector demonstrates how the evaluation criteria of the new BASE BW funding guideline can already be technically fulfilled today.

Vector is an associate member of the BANULA consortium, which includes TransnetBW, SmartLab, OLI Systems, the Schwarz Group, the University of Stuttgart, law firm bbh, and energy supplier badenova.