BMW and E.ON connect e-cars and grid with smart charging solution

In the hopes of expanding into a bidirectional solution, BMW Group and E.ON are partnering on what they call the first pan-European cooperation for intelligent charging at home.

The aim of the strategic cooperation, announced yesterday, is to create ‘Connected Home Charging’, a holistic charging ecosystem that will allow customers to connect their electrified BMW or MINI vehicle with the energy system.

The automotive and energy giants’ cooperation will focus on the creation of a common interface that combines three previously separate systems: BMW Group Electric Vehicles (EVs), customers’ smart homes and the energy market.

BMW Group will be responsible for the EVs and charging hardware and will manage the interface with the customer.

In addition to providing installation, electrical and connectivity services at customers’ homes, E.ON will also be responsible for ensuring sustainable energy tariffs and access to the energy market, which plays a key role in the intelligent control of charging processes.

Paving the way for bidirectionality

The cooperation will also create the necessary conditions for enabling bidirectional charging, using the EV’s high-voltage battery as an energy storage device and feed the stored electricity back into the customer’s own household or the power grid at a later time.

Results of the joint research project ‘Bidirectional Charging Management – BDL’, which was successfully completed at the end of 2022, are being incorporated into the partners’ system.

The project connected vehicles, charging infrastructure and power grids in a way that promotes renewable energy and increases security of supply. For this, 50 regenerative BMW i3s were provided to customers.

The project, which was conducted by the BMW Group and E.ON subsidiaries Bayernwerk and E.ON Energie Deutschland, demonstrated the effectiveness of bidirectional charging. Intelligently controlled integration of EVs into the power grid, states the partners, can increase renewable energy as a share of total consumption in Germany.

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On the other, EV storage systems were found to be able to absorb peaks in production from wind and solar plants in a targeted manner and release them again in times of low generation, while continuing to meet customers’ driving needs.

This can reduce the need to fire up fossil-fuel power plants and their emissions at such times. In addition, bidirectional charging technology can then contribute to supply security and grid stability.

Going into the future, BMW and E.ON have stated they will focus their efforts on the opportunities offered by bidirectional charging and its two central use cases:

• Vehicle to home, which feeds electricity from the high-voltage battery into the household
• Vehicle to grid, which feeds electricity from the high-voltage battery into the power grid

Release

The first offering of ‘Connected Home Charging’ will be available in several European countries from the mid-second half of 2023 and will lay the foundations for hardware and networking as a holistic package solution.

Intelligent control of charging processes will initially enable two variants: solar-optimised charging, which allows the largest possible amount of electricity from the home’s own photovoltaic system to be used, and load-optimised charging, which balances the amount of electricity available at home.

In the coming years, the ecosystem will be expanded to include cost-optimised charging, which will extend the connectivity of fully-electric vehicles and smart homes to the energy system.

Customers can then take advantage of price developments on the power exchange market with a special electricity contract that allows them to charge at low prices whenever possible.

Patrick Lammers, member of the Board of Management of E.ON SE and responsible for the customer solutions business, stated on the partnership: “E.ON and the BMW Group are already leaders in their industries.

“We are now leveraging our strengths and combining them to create a unique ecosystem for charging at home. In this way, we will jointly set the standard for electrified vehicles to become part of the energy market in the future and support the energy transition.”