Easy access to charge points will encourage electric car usage and reduce CO2 pollution

1. casestudy
UTILITIES
We do IT naturally
INTRODUCTION OVERVIEW
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Thanks to the sophisticated power network across The Netherlands and many other countries, electricity
is available at the click of a switch to meet demand as and when required. It is the task of grid
management to prepare the grid for the future; the future of charging electric cars. If too much energy is
produced, for example, through the energy of windmills, you need to deliver and store it somewhere,
otherwise the energy grid will be overloaded. Conversely, if insufficient energy is available, firms and
consumers may suffer if demand exceeds supply. A solution needs to be found to balance energy supply
and demand.
On average the Dutch consume around 40% of their energy per household on transport. Electric cars are
considerably more economical than petrol, diesel or gas run vehicles and can enable a reduction in the
40% consumption. In addition, CO2 emissions will also fall, especially if green electricity is used. If a
large number of cars are electric, then this immediately solves a big part of the energy balancing
problem, as car batteries can provide both storage and backup.
However, market demand for electric cars will be very limited if there are not enough charging facilities
available. A charging station network is therefore needed around the globe to break the status quo.
This project provides a solution to the status quo by establishing a national grid of charging stations and
by promoting and supporting European standards for using this grid. In this way, drivers will be capable
of charging their car not only in their own city or country but also during travel abroad. This will stimulate
the use of electric cars and will change drivers’ lives by the possibility of using silent, environmentally
friendly vehicles, whilst still providing the consumer with individual and personal methods of transport; a
combination which is necessary for success.
For this project the Dutch Grid Owners management is co-operating to prepare the Dutch grid for the
future. They are working together in a joint venture, called e-laad.nl, a non-profit foundation using green
energy. The goal of e-laad.nl is: creating and testing a uniform, rural covering and general accessible
infrastructure of 10,000 charging stations. E-laad.nl is going to place these charging stations in the
period 2009-2012. By doing so, it will bundle research en development and practical knowledge to create
uniformity in technology, communication and design. International standards will be used where possible,
and when there is no standard available, new de-facto standards will be developed.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY
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This type of infrastructure is totally new in the world. Nowhere is there a national charging station grid
available. Because of this uniqueness, sophisticated technology is needed to design and build the
network of charging stations. It is not only a charging station, that may be used only by authorised
users, but also includes an infra and transaction management system behind it.

2. Meanwhile, some of the critical success factors of this project are privacy protection preventing tracking
and tracing of users, standardisation, ease of use and international usability. Such functionality requires
use of sophisticated technology and a combination of tools and used applications. Meanwhile the systems
should be capable of connecting to each other.
Charge points need to stay working also when no data connection is available, so offline usage must be
possible. Finally a few million charge points will be sending data to the central infra management
systems and monitoring of all these charging stations must be possible. You can’t have the situation that
user can’t drive because they couldn’t charge their car. Availability is key for this. Sophisticated
technology will enable this almost conflicting types of interest.
For the network and infrastructure special attention has been paid to the following technology areas:
• Technology in charge point
Software is developed for the charge point. It will manage offline capabilities to enable working also
when there is no connection with the central system. Also, the software will verify and send start and
stop activities from users to the central system and it can open, lock and unlock the charge point and
plug. Also important is safety control. This can be managed remotely from the central system if needed.
Also fraud control is part of it
• Communication systems between the charge points and central systems
1.000.000 charge points need to be able to work in this new infrastructure. Most of them will be
connected wireless to the central system. Price and quality of the connection is vital. Connections such as
CDMA, GPRS or LTE will be used or a combination. Currently GPRS is being used, but new and better
communication systems are being investigated
• Universal protocol between charge point from different brands and the central system
To enable different brands of charge points on different central systems a new open protocol is used. All
suppliers will know the way to connect to the systems and charge points. This will promote an open and
competitive market across countries
• Technology in the infra management system that is managing transactions and infra
A new infra management system is being used, with special attention for privacy. It is not possible to
track and trace a user without searching in not connected systems. The infra, transactions and link to
subscriber/user is completely split
• Connection with third parties to share information with external portals and external systems for
billing and other purposes.
Open standard interfaces generate possibilities to connect to other systems, for billing, SAP, or mobile
applications (points of interest)
• Connection to Smart Grids that will enable the balancing of the network.
The system is capable of connecting to smart grids and to facilitate the needed tools for managing a
smart grid. This way grid balancing is possible by charging the connected cars less fast, when not much
energy is available and allow fast charging in better periods of the day
BENEFITS
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The project is helping those it was designed to help. Car drivers have the possibility to charge their
electric car in many different places and cities and the infra manager has the capability to monitor and
manage the infrastructure. The project has fundamentally changed how tasks are performed. In fact
these activities were simply not possible to do before.
By promoting the standards abroad, this project enables the Dutch population and other potential
overseas markets, to buy an electric car and have it charged in the same uniform way wherever they go.
Both customers and non- e-Laad customers will be able to make use of the network of 10,000 stations
throughout the country. It is also possible for e-Laad user to use other charge point networks through
roaming technology. For the electric car owners, usage of the system is inexpensive, as a free charge
point is made available near their home and they only pay 100 Euro per year to use the system.
Meanwhile, it gives municipalities and grid owners the possibility to monitor the energy need and
storage. This in turn supports the balancing of the energy network. Finally, the project will result in less
outage of electricity supply and should save a considerable amount of money for maintaining the grid.
The project is beneficial for the whole society in The Netherlands because in a very short period of time a
huge usable infrastructure is needed. So there is always a charge point somewhere near the user
destination to charge the car. This will promote electric car usage and will reduce CO2 pollution in the
country. It will also be beneficial for other nations as it will speed up and promote standardisation and
will stimulate other countries to also setup a network of charge points that can be used by everyone.
Finally many cities and countries will reduce their CO2 emissions.

3. Easy access to charge points will encourage electric car usage and reduce
CO2 pollution.
Chargepoints in the field A Garage wall-mounted station
Above is a map to locate charging stations.

4. ORIGINALITY
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All of the above (the first, the only and most effective application of its kind).
The exceptional aspects of the project are:
• It is an end-to-end solution with the use of open available standard interfaces. The company,
Alfen, supplied the hardware for the charge points and Logica developed the software for the charge
point and the central system. However, all requirements and specifications are set up by an open group
of companies. In this way, it will not be limited to only Logica and Alfen; also other charge points and
central systems can be connected. This unique concept makes cross border and cross system usage
possible
• Special attention is paid to ensuring that charge points are always usable, even when there is no
connection with the central system. After the first use, a charge point will authenticate the user next
time without needing to go to the central system. When there is no connection, the transaction is stored
locally and sent to the central system when the connection is available again
• Through an intelligent system of blacklisting and remote control, fraud preventions is maximised
• Maximum privacy of users is guaranteed by splitting the connections (authentication process
from the infra management. Without connecting and having access to different secured systems it will
not be possible to check who used a specific charge point when and for how long
• The system is using open standards for all interfaces. When standards are not available, de-
facto standards are developed and also made available for the market and industry
• In a very short period a huge system is defined and the first pilots are done
• There is a lot of international attention and request from both the Energy as well as the
Transport sector to connect to the system. This will generate a European wide system.
DIFFICULTY
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There were a few important obstacles to overcome during this project.
- Standards: There are not yet many standards for both hardware (such as plugs) and for
software (such as ways of authentication, interfacing with other charge points and roaming of user
authentication between different systems).
- Innovation level: Due to this being a pioneering solution, there is limited existing knowledge of
such a nationally designed solution, no one knew exactly what they wanted and how they wanted it.
Requirements had to be determined and learning was by ‘doing’.
- Technology: There are so many important requirements, the to-be-used technology was
uncertain. Also the reliability of telecom connections was initially disappointing. Solutions needed to be
found for offline usage, to guarantee user availability.
- Organisational challenges: Making electric driving a success, means that companies need to
work together, even when they are competitors in certain situations. Making agreements is not easy,
when the various interests of the stakeholder organisations have to be considered.
- Market scepticism: Some entities in the market reacted with skepticism at the highly ambitious
program that has been started. Many companies and organisations talk about it, but
there is not one single country that is so far with the realisation of the network as The Netherlands. As a
result of this lack of precedence, individuals and companies needed to be convinced before agreeing to
co-operate.
- Limited availability of electric cars and high price of those cars caused problems of acceptance
by the potential users. A network of charge points has been established, but users need to want to use it.
The market is growing fast, but no one knows yet if electric cars will finally solve the obstacles of limited
range, high price and limited availability. Success of this system finally depends on mass adoption.
Setting up a complete new infrastructure of 10,000 charge points for electric cars that are even not yet
available is not easy. The fact that it is a new concept, the requirements are not clear at the start of the
project, it has proved difficult to get co-operation from companies. Meanwhile, the process of setting up
the grid and start building it, went faster than getting funding from the government.

5. These problems were solved in three ways:
- e-Laad.nl is a foundation of 85% of all grid owners, in this way, it has also the support of those grid
owners. Together they agreed to invest 15 million Euros in the first years. Gaining this support has been
crucial for the success in setting up a national network with international capabilities.
- Finding good partners who were willing to invest in the early stage of the project. Both Alfen and Logica
believed in it, although also for those companies success was not guaranteed. They both have innovation
and R&D teams who have been capable together with e-Laad.nl in starting a journey together and
defining together the requirements of the existing and future market. By developing prototypes and a
pilot, the final requirements where defined.
- Just do it! Mentality - if you believe in it, you must do it and prove that you are right. E-Laad.nl and its
partners just started and did not want to wait for funding. Through collective investment the risk is
shared.
SUCCESS
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The project achieved the goals. It is fully operational (first release, second release is planned).
The success of the project is already visible. There is much interest from companies both in The
Netherlands and abroad; both in the areas of Energy and Transport. It is clear that increasingly more
people believe that electric driving is the future. The system build for the charge points and management
of this infrastructure will change the landscape and the way people think about transport. There are
already requests to connect the system to other systems including SAP and other brands of charge
points. Also, companies who are involved in new developments for intelligent transport systems
requested information to use the infrastructure. Currently negations are taking place to connect other
countries to this system. Such countries include Portugal, Madeira, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
There has been much interest from the media around each step that has been taken. Each city that
installs the first charge point, sets up a press event. Former Dutch Prime Minister, Ruud Lubbers is one of
the first enthusiastic users of the system. If the infrastructure is established throughout the entire
country and most of the time in very visible places, then a huge amount of potential users have the
opportunity to see the system. As soon as affordable cars are commercially available for the general
public, then Dutch citizens can buy and start using them immediately. Meanwhile, the national
government is promoting electric cars through providing a variety of tax incentives. Electric car users pay
hardly any road taxes and no CO2 emission taxes. This is giving a huge boost to the market.
It is difficult to predict what the final take-up of electric driving will be, as much depends on the
availability of electric cars. However, most car manufacturers have announced the introduction of
affordable electric cars within the next one and half years. The infrastructure is currently already being
used by the first adopters. Until 2012 there should be at least 10,000 charge points available. It is
expected that at that moment they also will all be used and that the system will be accepted. Within five
years, the use of electric cars and the charging infrastructure is anticipated to be as common as current
traditional fuel systems.
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outsourcing to clients around the world, including many of Europe's largest businesses. Logica creates value for clients by successfully
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250 Brook Drive clients’ business needs. Logica is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and Euronext (Amsterdam) (LSE: LOG; Euronext: LOG). More
Green Park information is available at www.logica.com
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