Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Energy ECS (Smart and secure energy solutions for future mobility)
Reporting period: 2022-06-01 to 2023-05-31
The strong and long-lasting external dependence and massive consumption of fossil fuels, particularly in mobility, represent the largest risk and challenge to reach an energy resilient Europe. However, Europe is committed to a green energy transition, e.g. increasing the use of sustainable energy sources, and reducing the various types of emissions. In response, the Energy ECS project develops a set of technologies in Electronics, Components and Systems (ECS), to accelerate the digitalization of e-mobility systems. The overall objective of the project is to enable new European know-how and manufacturing capabilities of hardware, software, services and data for e-mobility solutions. The project builds on six use cases, showcasing advanced energy and mobility solutions of the future: enablers of new logistics modes, energy independent intermodal transport, charging technologies and opportunities, grid stability responding to bi-directional charging, and strengthens foundation of safe autonomous driving. Therefore, the Energy ECS project aims to facilitate the emergence of new business models and ecosystems, enabled by the restructuring of technology and business value chains that energy and mobility sectors are currently facing.
During the first year, the main focus of the project has been in defining the specifications for the use cases and starting the design, modelling, and simulation work. The hardware concepts for the sensors and components have been fixed for most of the subsystems, and the detailed hardware design and simulations has started. For instance: (1) the first prototypes of the microgrid controller electronics have been integrated, and the housing of the IoT devices for intermodal transport have been built; (2) a cloud platform and energy management telematics of smart grid solutions have been developed and are in test use; (3) an energy management system for intermodal transport IoT system has been developed; (4) development of the new eSled vehicle charge control unit prototype software has started; (5) the software for asset management for microgrids and forming virtual power plants from microgrids have been developed; and (6) the common strategies for reliability testing and quality control have been set up. Furthermore, already during the first year, there has been active development of business models for the new logistics ecosystems.
Overall, the Energy ECS projects aims to go beyond state of the art in terms of simulation of charging processes, prediction of renewable generation and consumption, onboard chargers using higher pulse frequencies (which solve parasitic effects and improve cooling and thermo-mechanical reliability), among other aspects.