Super Smart Charging Hubs

Acronym: SSCH
Title: Super Smart Charging Hubs

 Can you provide a brief overview of the SSCH project and its primary objectives?
There is a business opportunity to offer smart solutions combining renewable energy with storage and smart use of energy with minimum impact on the grid. However, innovations in this domain are in full development and integration into one system is challenging. Demand and technology for smart charging hub solutions are latent, as public authorities do not tender for it, and the business case is unproven. Moreover, there are differences across regions in the regulations to (dis)connect from the grid, tariffication, energy distribution and safety aspects concerning batteries. The objective of this project is to kickstart the business opportunity by experimenting with the business case and paving the way for upscaling the solution by companies. 
3 living Labs will support companies to provide solutions for a SSCH and to take away hurdles:

1. The SSCH in Vlissingen (Netherlands) near the train station and the harbour
2. A SSCH on a location in Flanders (Belgium) on the premises of a social housing company
3. A climate-smart mobility house SSCH in Malmö (Sweden).

In addition, 2 follower partners have joined the project: The City of Bremen in Germany and the social housing organisation Partenord Habitat in France.
The project will also increase the knowledge about SSCH solutions and services of 25 SMEs in the North Sea Region (NSR), leading to 10 high-level business plans and 10 feasibility studies, preparing in this way 10 additional locations for SSCH deployment.

What role does VUB play in the SSCH project, and what are some of its key contributions?
MOBI, is the research partner of the project and leads the activities related to identifying stakeholder needs, assessing the Super Smart Charging Hubs, and developing high-level feasibility studies and business plans. By supporting 25 SMEs, the aim is to drive the implementation of cutting-edge innovations to reduce the need for costly grid reinforcements due to BEVs uptake.

Based on previous research and its extensive project implementation experience, MOBI will lead the following activities:

• Collaboratively create an innovation concept and design for a SSCH Living Lab.
• Investigate how the installation of a storage battery helps the smart use of renewables and charging BEVs.
• Define a common transnational framework to compare feasibility studies. User acceptance, investment behaviours and scalability of business models will be key elements of this framework.
• Measure in real life and with end-users the impact of the SSCH’s in terms of business case, use cases and societal impact.
• Guide 10 companies and 10 cities and regions to develop high-level business plans and feasibility studies.

What will be the broader impact of the SSCH project? 
Transnational cooperation is needed to showcase the Super Smart Charging Hubs solution in the North Sea Region countries to companies (especially for the business case), public authorities and grid operators (to solve grid congestion while expanding the charging network for BEVs), and end-users.

Moreover, new ways to work together in the Nort Sea Region are needed to create common policies (rules) about tariffication (i.e. in terms of surplus energy from solar panels), standardization, or dealing with different permits (i.e. for physical space close to sufficient capacity distribution grids).
By creating a common platform for knowledge and distribution of new business models and innovations, SSCH can provide a palette of solutions so that more public authorities and companies in the NSR and other European regions can follow.

More information about the SSCH project developments and results is available at:
https://www.interregnorthsea.eu/super-smart-charging-hubs/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/super-smart-charging-hubs/posts/?feedView=all

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