By Greentech Lead America: Siemens announced it has
received $1.6 million in development funding from the Department of
Energy (DoE) to support research aimed at reducing the current costs of
electrical vehicle (EV) chargers and developing “smart” charging
capabilities that support power grid efficiency and consumer demand.
The grant, awarded to Siemens Corporation, Corporate
Research and Technology (SCR&T), will be supported by
nearly $750,000 in matching research funding an investment shared
with Siemens Low Voltage Electronics, the group responsible for Residential
Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment and a business unit of Siemens Infrastructure
and Cities.
The intent of the research grants is to improve the
functionality and affordability of electric vehicle chargers.
“Developing smart electric vehicle chargers will
provide more options to consumers and accelerate the build-out of the charging
infrastructure in ways that strengthen the grid,” said Steve
Chu, U.S. energy secretary.
The research funding is aimed to provide manufacturers a
financial incentive to set aside ‘winner-take-all’ competitive imperatives and
set a clearer path to align commercial EV charging technology development that
supports integration with the power grid and ultimately provides substantial
benefits to consumers.
Duke Energy and Ford Motor Company will collaborate with
Siemens in
the overall development effort. Duke Energy will provide input and help guide
communications development to provide ways for utilities to manage increasing
demand without having to add costly generation and distribution capacity.
The research is also aimed to help utilities manage the
transition to a national EV charging infrastructure and the growing demand it
would place on the grid and generation capacity.
“The government’s investment will expedite
collaboration. By teaming up, the companies chosen by the DoE will be able to
develop standardized solutions faster and at a greatly reduced overall
cost,” said Barry Contrael, director of Low Voltage Electronics for
Siemens Infrastructure and Cities.
Siemens recently received a
General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule 56 contract to provide Electric
Vehicle (EV) charging stations to the U.S. Government.
editor@greentechlead.com