Smart charging in daily routine – expectations, experiences, and preferences of potential users

In the mobility sector, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) provide a promising solution to rising CO2 emissions and, in the long term, the dependence on oil. However, in the energy sector, conventionally charged BEVs provide an additional challenge as they potentially lead to higher energy consumption and a higher need for balancing energy supply and demand. In contrast, when using smart charging technologies, BEVs could become a valuable energy balancing tool in smart grids by using them as “controllable” energy consumer and energy storage. Until now, user-centered research on the acceptance of smart charging systems is rare (e.g., Pettersson, 2013; Schmalfuß et al., 2015). However, as smart charging concepts have an impact on a very essential aspect of the daily routine – mobility – a user-centered approach (Norman & Draper, 1986) when developing smart grid applications (e.g., smart charging systems) is highly recommended (e.g., Verbong, Beemsterboer & Sengers, 2013). Investigating expectations, experiences and preferences of potential users of a smart charging system and integrating the results in the developmental process, was one part of the project “Gesteuertes Laden V3.0” which was funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. In this contribution, we summarize the main user studies and their results.