Two companies from Beckum have jointly developed a smart charging station for electric vehicles that is durable, weatherproof and sustainable. At the same time, it enables stable power grids and prevents grid overloads.
Find out more about the innovation from Münsterland on this page.
Energieversorgung Beckum GmbH & Co KG is a customer-oriented energy supply company based in Beckum and supplies around 38,000 people with electricity and gas as well as energy-related services according to their individual needs.
alcona Automation GmbH develops, produces and distributes high-quality electrical, electronic and electromechanical components, devices and systems for the international market. The focus is on the business areas of electromobility, drive technology and agriculture.
The future belongs to electromobility. But its constant further development challenges the current electricity grids, especially when more and more electric cars are being charged at the same time. One charging station for the home is the so-called wallbox, which is attached to the wall or a pole. These are easier to set up compared to public charging stations, but they must also work reliably for years and be wind- and weatherproof. Conventional wallboxes consist of certain parts inside that wear out after a certain time and eventually have to be replaced or even make the devices permanently unusable. Energieversorgung Beckum and the company alcona Automation GmbH therefore set themselves the goal of jointly developing a simple, low-wear and particularly sustainable wallbox.
The cooperation partners invented the Stromat wallbox. In their design, they deliberately did without plastic on the outside and wearing parts on the inside. Instead, they chose a rim from the scooter manufacturer Vespa as the torso. The front of the wallbox consists of a stainless steel plate that the customer can design according to his wishes. You won't find any wear-prone capacitors or relays in the Stromat. These are the components that are often responsible for defects in electrical appliances.
If something does break, each part can be replaced individually. That's why the manufacturer alcona gives a ten-year guarantee on the Stromat, while other manufacturers' wallboxes often only have a two-year guarantee. It was also important to the cooperation partners to develop the device directly at and with the customer. The first to test the Stromat was therefore gfw - Gesellschaft für Wirtschaftsförderung im Kreis Warendorf.
The durability, the design and the high manufacturer's warranty were immediately well received by customers and the Stromat met with great interest. At the same time, the cooperation partners used the many feedbacks to launch an even more intelligent and complex version of the Stromat Wallbox on the market at the beginning of 2021: the Stromat-I. The Stromat-I takes into account not only the requirements of the end customers, but also those of the sales partners, i.e. the energy suppliers.
Although the design has become more complex, the torso still consists of a vehicle rim and the front of scratch-resistant glass. The energy suppliers can have these designed with their own logo. The Stromat-I also has dynamic load management (the charging power is adapted to the electricity consumption in the house) and solar coupling (optimal combination of the PV system with the charging station), and it can also be used to bill charging processes.
In addition, the wallbox has LoRaWAN connectivity. The wireless Long Range Wide Area Network can be used by grid operators to control the power of the wallbox intelligently and in line with the grid, thus keeping the electricity grids stable. So far, no other wallbox manufacturer has this function on the market, as it is primarily of interest to the grid operator. It thus enables the energy provider to develop new types of charging tariffs for the home - from which end customers who want to buy an electric car also benefit. The first Stromat-I wall boxes were delivered in February 2021.
As a regional joint initiative, Enabling Networks Münsterland supports companies and universities in the Münsterland region in developing innovations, implementing them and finding the right partners for the project. In order to show how innovative and at the same time cooperative Münsterland already is, the project also went in search of innovative cooperation projects from the region. The results are presented on this page. The Enabling Networks Münsterland project is funded by the European Union and the NRW Ministry of Economics as part of the ERDF call "Regio.NRW".
