Siemens On the Road to a New Age of Electricity with Electromobility

At this year’s Hanover Fair Siemens is presenting key components for electromobility as part of the Mobilitec tradeshow lineup. These components include newly developed charging stations as an integral feature of a future charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, and the requisite software and IT. Siemens also sees major potential for electromobility for utilities because electric cars can in the future be utilized as intermediate stores for surplus renewables-based power in a smart grid.

“We’re on the road to a new electricity age with electrical energy as the preferred source of energy. The key to success is setting up smart grids. Based on the findings of studies CO₂ emissions can be reduced by more than a billion tons by the year 2020 with the aid of smart grids,” said Ralf Christian, CEO of the Power Distribution Division of Siemens Energy. Siemens smart grid solutions make power supply networks ready to meet the requirements of electromobility.

Ecofriendly electric cars can be optimally integrated into smart grids. When parked for extended periods and hooked up to the grid via a charging station, electric cars can, for example, be charged at night with surplus power from wind farms. Electric cars thus contribute toward grid stabilization and help to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix.

Besides ensuring that electric cars are guided to the next charging station, centrally controlled networking and IT integration of charging stations is important to enable effective connection of electric vehicles to a close-knit network of charging stations. In Hanover Siemens is presenting a system of this type, with features including various payment options. The data generated is forwarded to a mainframe computer for further processing – for example, for billing with the energy provider. This is above all expedient where a large number of cars are charged, for example in public multistory car parks or on company parking lots.

Siemens is conducting extensive and intensive work on electromobility. It is only company worldwide that covers the entire electromobility process chain – ranging from intelligent energy and IT infrastructure solutions via charging technologies to research into the requisite drive technologies.

Innovative solutions for setting up smart grids are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2009, revenue from the Portfolio totaled about $31 billion (EUR23 billion), making Siemens the world’s largest supplier of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, the company’s products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their CO₂emissions by 210 million tons. This amount equals the combined annual CO₂emissions of New York, Tokyo, London and Berlin