eMind

Development of Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles in Düren

Interdisciplinary collaborative project in the context of “Sofortprogramm Saubere Luft 2017 bis 2020”

The project eMIND – Electric Mobility INtegration Düren – consists of the city of Düren and three institutes of the RWTH Aachen University: The Institute for High Voltage Technology, short IFHT, the Chair of Communication Science and Human-Computer Interaction Center, shortform HCIC, and the Chair and Institute of Urban and Transport Planning, shortform ISB. The consortium is supported by the commissioning of the Business and Innovation Network Düren GmbH, short WIN.DN, and the Leitungspartner GmbH, next to further subcontractors concerning charging system development, demand consulting for companies and charging hotspots in semi-public areas, as well as automated charging infrastructure planning in the power grid.

The consortium’s overall objective is to expand electric mobility in Düren through the targeted development of semi-public charging infrastructure. Incentives are to be created to replace vehicles with combustion engines by electric vehicles and thus, reduce NOX emissions significantly and sustainably. In addition, charging and service offers are examined in order to ensure a user-oriented provision of the infrastructure. In detail, plans are to set up charging infrastructure at a total of 30 company sites within the project area and to put two charging hotspots into operation.

The Tasks

The participating chairs of the RWTH Aachen University take over the following tasks:

• The Institute for High Voltage Technology investigates the integration of charging infrastructure by considering the future market launch of electromobility. Besides, procedures for the load management of loading points are being developed; its influence is evaluated by means of scenario calculations. On this basis and in close cooperation with the Leitungspartner GmbH, the city of Düren is subsequently supported with regard to the development of concepts for the long-term optimization of electricity grids.
• The Human-Computer Interaction Center develops recommendations for the optimization of loading and service offers based on requirements of different user groups. For this purpose, usage and acceptance factors are derived from empirical investigations concerning potential users, which enable an evaluation of the locations for loading infrastructure determined in the project. The aim is to parameterize price models as well as charging and service offerings in order to achieve optimized savings in the reduction potential for NOX, both in the city of Düren and by generalizing the results for other locations within the project region.
• The location model for electrical charging infrastructure, STELLA, developed at the Chair and Institute of Urban and Transport Planning , serves as a basis for determining the saved NOX potential for a detailed consideration of settlement structures and potential e-vehicle users. Based on, in particular, traffic interrelationships (developed within the model and the vehicle ownership model, the driving performance is determined, which is no longer covered with conventional propulsion but with electric power due to the promotion of electric mobility.

With regard to the RWTH partners, the collaborative goal is to support the city of Düren in the development of sustainable concepts for the deployment of charging infrastructure and the acceleration of mobility change towards electric vehicles.