Preparing Europe’s residential buildings for the EV-charging wave of the future

The power limitations of countless buildings across Europe present a significant obstacle to widespread electric vehicle adoption, but innovative solutions are being found, including in Portugal.

With nearly half of Europe’s population living in residential buildings and many countries lagging behind in terms of public EV charging infrastructure, achieving Europe’s EV adoption targets hinges on the ability to conveniently charge at home.

Enlit on the Road visited Smart Energy LAB in Lisbon to find out how their solution, EDGE, is providing a standardised, end-to-end solution to help accelerate the transition needed in residential buildings.

Residential buildings need an upgrade for the future

“[EV users] really want to charge at home… depending on the public chargers is a blocker for EV adoption. And that's the problem that we're addressing,” says Diogo Brito, Lead of Engineering at Smart Energy LAB.

Apart from being inconvenient, public charges are inevitably more expensive than charging at home. But installing chargers in shared parking lots in residential buildings comes with an array of challenges.

“First, we need the agreement of all the parties, the EV users, the building manager, which is sometimes difficult,” explains Brito.

“Usually when we install an EV charger, it will be connected to the general electric distribution panel that also supplies the lifts, ventilation systems and garage doors. Charging your EV should not get someone stuck in an elevator, for example”.

“This is an European-wide problem. The buildings are not prepared for the energy demand that EV charging requires. Therefore, we really need to manage these EV chargers that are installed in these buildings in order to overcome these capacity limitations.”

More from Enlit on the Road:
Site visit: France’s first EV battery gigafactory
Preparing for the future of ‘autonomous’ EVs with a digital twin
Transforming a factory for the e-mobility future

Smart solutions for smart charging

The EDGE solution goes beyond just smart charging. The modular system eliminates the need for expensive and disruptive custom installations, making the process faster and more cost-effective for building managers, and facilitating decision making.

Additionally, the system automatically monitors individual charger usage, paving the way for a fair and transparent billing system for residents, instead of the building manager having to do it manually, which is currently often the case.

Watch the full video to understand how EDGE’s modular solution can be applied across Europe.