GreenCharge Project Deliverable: D2.3 Description of Oslo Pilot and User Needs

Within the GreenCharge project, Oslo is one out of three pilot sites. In the Oslo pilot, there is a particular focus on providing cost efficient home charging facilities for inhabitants living in blocks of flats. For piloting, the project has selected the Røverkollen housing cooperative, comprising 246 apartments distributed over five blocks. The housing cooperative has a stand-alone four-storey parking garage where most residents have their own parking spot.

In this report, an overview is given of the Oslo pilot site and its specific challenges are identified. The challenges include general mobility requirements, where many needs a car for their daily life and that potential buyers of electric vehicles (EVs) expect charging at their own dedicated parking place before committing to buying. This has been confirmed by a survey addressing all residents in the housing cooperative. In addition to charging for the residents, the housing cooperative sees an opportunity in providing charging to visitors and employees at a nearby work place.

As of 14.01.2019, there were 17 chargeable vehicles at Røverkollen (based on data from the Norwegian Public Roads Authority). The housing cooperative has established four outdoor semi-fast chargers. These are accessed through a rudimentary booking scheme. At the start of the project, 15 residents have signed a contract for using these outdoor chargers. Results from the conducted survey indicate that approximately 50 % of the residents at Røverkollen consider buying their own chargeable vehicle within two years.

GreenCharge has defined seven innovation scenarios. Four of these have been identified as relevant for the Oslo pilot:

2. Charging at booked Charging station

4. Home charging in older (groups of) residential or working buildings with common internal grid and parking facilities, or at work in (groups of) buildings with similar limitations

5. V2G (vehicle-to-grid)

6. Reacting to Demand Response (DR) request

Based on these selected innovation scenarios the different use cases to be implemented and tested at the Oslo pilot has been identified and detailed.

The expected growth in ownership of EVs, and the need for charging these EVs, is a challenge for the housing cooperative. This is both related to investment costs and the increased demand for electric power. To satisfy user needs a new charging infrastructure needs to be deployed in the parking garage. This needs to be implemented with demand management to ensure that the usage will not overload the electricity grid.