INCH

The overall objective of the INCH project is to alleviate the impact of electric vehicles (EV) charging on operation of public and private networks and enable charging of an increasing number of EVs in a smart, safe, and sustainable manner. The project aimed to develop and commercialise a price-performance optimised smart, interactive AC charging system for EVs, designed primarily for home use and use in semi-private areas where several EVs are charging at the same time. With implemented charging control algorithms and communication interfaces the newly developed charging system addresses one of the main concerns related to the upcoming increase of EVs, namely the ability of power system to distribute the increased amount of energy to final users in a safe and reliable way. INCH charging system enables interaction between operation of power grids and EV charging. It exploits the demand response capability of EV charging to elevate the role of EV charging from an uncontrollable load to an active component of smart grids. Communication of charging system with grid and energy market actors enables incorporation of EV charging into demand response schemes that improve the operation conditions of public grid and contribute to energy balancing. On the local level, considering the operation of INCH interactive charging system within the grid user's internal network (behind the meter), the implemented power management algorithms control the charging process to achieve different goals: prevention of overload of internal network, charging cost optimisation by shifting the charging load to the periods of low energy delivery tariffs, maximisation of consumption of locally produced energy, and distribution of total charging load to several chargers installed at the same location by strict consideration of individual users’ charging needs. There are two main categories of users that will benefit from INCH: end users who use the interactive EV charging system, and other electromobility actors (service providers, EV supply equipment operators, DSOs, energy providers, balance responsible parties & energy traders). End users will benefit from increased safety in operation of their internal network and reduced total costs of charging; other electromobility stakeholders will be able to offer new added value services based on charging load controllability and new data coming from interactive charging stations. The overall impact of the INCH project will be reflected in wider acceptance of electromobility by removing some deficiencies of presently implemented charging systems and by offering the users a cost-effective installation and use of charging system. Together with interaction of EV charging with smart grid systems, the INCH project will allow to increase the number and use of EVs by charging them in a smart manner, which is the only way to optimise energy use in transport and reduce related greenhouse gas emissions.