By purchasing a chargeBIG charging system, Stuttgart Airport has opted for a low-cost solution from MAHLE for the electrification of its employee- and vehicle-fleet parking spaces, according to the company.
“It is thus making optimal use of its existing infrastructure rather than needing to invest extensively in the expansion of its network,” MAHLE added in a news release.
chargeBIG is a corporate startup from MAHLE with the specific objective of decreasing bottlenecks in the power supply and enabling the rapid development of an extensive charging infrastructure.
The basic idea of chargeBIG is a centralized, scalable charging infrastructure concept for short-term parking-lot users and fleet operators.
“The bottlenecks in the charging process are caused by spikes in power delivery rather than the energy that is actually available,” explains Sebastian Ewert, head of project management Europe at MAHLE and a member of the chargeBIG team. “We use intelligent load distribution to take advantage of this situation.”
The installation of the 110 charging points at Stuttgart Airport together with MAHLE’s partner eliso is underway. The external area and parking facilities already have been developed, and the charging points are currently being fitted to wall and column mountings on the apron.
The chargeBIG charging concept for single-phase AC destination charging with charging outputs of between 2.3 and 7.2 kilowatts comprises a central, intelligent control unit with permanently mounted cables and connector plugs instead of charging columns in the parking lot.
“Thanks to the intelligent charging system and design-to-cost approach, there is no need to invest in expanding the network connection, resulting in substantial cost and time savings during the development of the charging infrastructure,” MAHLE explained.
A central control unit distributes the available charging capacity across the parked vehicles using dynamic, phase-specific load management, preventing unbalanced loads in the power supply. chargeBIG responds flexibly to other consumers on the network and uses the electric vehicles as a controllable load. This ensures optimal utilization of the available power supply.
“There are two other benefits: The chargeBIG solution is more convenient to install and look after than alternative systems as the charging points can be maintained very easily via the central electronics,” MAHLE explained. “The charging points are also de-energized when they are not in use – a clear advantage from a safety perspective.”
The concept is ideally suited to an application with around 20 to 100 electrified parking spaces and is infinitely scalable, according to MAHLE.
