Intelligent charging of utility vehicles: The Mobility House equips EAD Darmstadt

Living up to its mission of working toward a better future, the municipal undertaking for community functions and services of Darmstadt city of science (EAD) has begun forging ahead with establishing intelligent charging infrastructure for electric cars and electric utility vehicles. To ensure that the fleet of municipal electric vehicles can be charged efficiently and safely, the EAD is relying on the support and technology of The Mobility House. The first 32 charging stations were set up at the EAD headquarters at the end of April this year, and two more charging points were put into operation elsewhere in May. By mid-2022, The Mobility House will install 30 more intelligently controlled charging stations in roughly ten different locations.

All locations and charging stations will be controlled and monitored with ChargePilot®, The Mobility House’s hardware-agnostic charging and energy management system. At sites where the mains connection has a limited capacity for supplying power for the electric cars, the system enables the charging processes to be staggered and, if necessary, the loading capacity to be adjusted. This ensures that all electric vehicles are reliably and fully charged by the time they are needed for work without the need for a costly grid extension. In addition, the EAD fleet management can keep an eye on the electric fleet and the status of each charging station at all times thanks to the ChargePilot® web interface.

The EAD already uses several electric vehicles from various segments for a range of applications: more than a dozen small cars, multiple vans and commercial vehicles (such as compact electric street sweepers), and four street scooters. In the third quarter this will be followed by the delivery of an electrified refuse, which supports the transition to a low-emission fleet by converting an old vehicle that ran on diesel in its first life cycle. As the electricity used for charging is obtained from the local green energy provider, the vehicles have zero local emissions and thus make a major contribution toward improving air quality in the city. Plans are already underway to procure additional electric vehicles.

In this project the city of Darmstadt is being supported by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure: the EAD is being given 4.9 million euros from the electric mobility aid scheme as part of the emergency program “Saubere Luft 2017–2020” [“Clear air 2017–2020”] to purchase electric vehicles and set up suitable charging infrastructure.