The mayor of the city of Cottbus, Holger Kelch, is briefed on Thursday, 31. March 2022 at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg about the start-up project ePHANT, the forerunner project ismartC as well as the challenges of a start-up at the location Cottbus and possible interfaces and synergies in the cooperation with the city.

As the number of electric vehicles and charging points increases, so do the challenges for network management. Costs and demands on network management are increasing. In order to avoid overloading the power grids, the researchers in the ismartC transfer project have developed an individualised charging management system. The system is capable of integrating not only large charging parks, but also private households.

"People come home from work and charge their cars at about the same time. The result is that the power grids are overloaded," says Saman Amanpour, co-founder of the project and future managing director. "Our process allows the charging times to be adjusted so that they can be automatically distributed over the evening, night or early morning, for example".

The Integrated Smart-Charging System (ISC) offers the necessary flexibility for the safe operation of power grids, reducing the cost of electricity by up to 50 per cent without compromising the mobility needs of users of electric vehicles. The researchers Mark Kuprat, Saman Amanpour, Mikhail Ashkerov and Bastian Garnitz are developing a powerful IT infrastructure, a database management system, a smartphone application and the associated interfaces and server environments.

The ismartC project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) within the framework of the EXIST Research Transfer (EFT) with €700,000. The project is scheduled to run from 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2022. The project is located at the BTU Department of Power Distribution and High Voltage Engineering and is managed by the Project Management Organisation Jülich (PTJ).

The start-up  ePHANT is a spin-off of the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, which transforms the long-term research work in the field of grid- and energy market-based integration of charging processes of electric vehicles into a commercial product. The spin-off emerged from the EXIST research transfer project Integrated Smart Charging (ISC). The founders Mark Kuprat, Saman Amanpour, Mikhail Ashkerov and Bastian Garnitz plan to launch ePHANT Mobility Solutions in early 2023.