If electric cars roll along the roads powered by electricity from renewable sources, they are exceptionally climate-friendly. A new charging management system now ensures that their owners get more of the low-cost green electricity in their tanks. The software was developed by the start-up InnoCharge, a spin-off of the innBW institute FZI Research Center for Information Technology. In October 2021, the company received an award for its development. The award was presented by Elektrizitätswerke Schönau (EWS) and the Freiburg-based startup platform Smart Green Accelerator. The "MakeItMatter Award" honors startups that drive the decentralized energy transition with innovative solutions and sustainable business models. The prize money is 15,000 euros.
The young spin-off developed a market-ready charging management solution for optimizing charging processes in the new digitalized energy world. "Electric cars are in most cases connected to a charging station for many hours, although they only need to charge a few of them. We decide in a fully automated way when to charge with which power within the standing time in order to charge as green and cost-efficiently as possible at the same time," says founder Manuel Lösch. Savings result - in addition to the use of energy from own or communal generation - from participation in price fluctuations on the electricity exchange as well as from the supply of grid-stabilizing measures and the avoidance of load peaks. Thus, InnoCharge's technology package enables utilities and neighborhood operators to offer attractive charging tariffs. In this way, they can quickly advance the energy turnaround. The goal of the young entrepreneurs is to work together with energy providers to disseminate their charging management solution and jointly benefit from the savings potential.
About the FZI
The FZI Research Center for Information Technology, with headquarters in Karlsruhe and a branch office in Berlin, is a non-profit institution for information technology application research and technology transfer. It brings the latest scientific findings in information technology to companies and public institutions and qualifies young people for academic and business careers or the leap into self-employment. Supervised by professors from various faculties, the research groups at the FZI develop interdisciplinary concepts, software, hardware and system solutions for their clients and implement the solutions found as prototypes. The FZI House of Living Labs provides a unique research environment for application research. The FZI is an innovation partner of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
