Electric vehicles: Sensor-controlled parking space detection in Hamburg

A frequently presented challenge in the field of electromobility is the lack of sufficient publicly accessible charging stations for electric vehicles. Too often, charging points are occupied by illegal parkers or electric vehicles that are not charging. This is often to the frustration of those who urgently need new energy for their electric vehicle. Long drives to find free charging points should be a thing of the past. Charging point search traffic could be actively reduced and often even completely prevented. Within the framework of mySMARTLife, different measures to increase the usability of electric charging stations have been evaluated and a focus was laid on the development of a technical concept for detecting the availability of charging points.
 
Stromnetz Hamburg has faced the problem of misallocated space at the charging points in Hamburg by using ground sensors. A magnetic field sensor detects whether a vehicle is on the parking spot. This measured value is transmitted to the eRound backend system of Stromnetz Hamburg using the Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) standard. The status of the parking space can be transmitted to the users' apps, so that the users always have the real-time status of the charging station and thus know where the next free charging station can be used.

During the transformation process into a smart city, data and its transmission are the most important key elements because smart city applications can improve the quality of life in large cities: They can, for example, record cross-divisional meter readings, measure traffic volumes and thus reduce CO₂ emissions or make the disposal of waste more effective and efficient. This requires a communication and network infrastructure that can transmit data over long distances without the interference from cables and without cellars or walls preventing interference-free transmission as it is implemented in Lighthouse City Hamburg.
 
Interested to see how the sensor-controlled parking space evaluation works? - Watch the related video by Stromnetz Hamburg on YouTube.