ChargePoint Germany GmbH participated in the ELBE research project in Hamburg, where it installed and operated roughly one hundred electric‑vehicle charging points in the private sector, primarily at workplaces, fleet depots and multi‑family housing. These segments are regarded by ChargePoint’s experience in the United States as the key drivers for electric mobility. In Hamburg, the remaining capacity of building connections and parking‑lot supply is often minimal and not designed for the sustained charging demands of 3.7 to 22 kW or annual consumptions exceeding 1 000 kWh.

The project demonstrated that a dense network of connected charging points can be deployed in a tightly coupled urban distribution grid while keeping the capital costs of the site partners low through building‑level load management. By integrating the charging infrastructure with a smart‑meter gateway and an open interface based on the IEC standard OpenADR, the system achieved real‑time, grid‑friendly operation that can be maintained after the project ends, thereby avoiding the need for grid expansion. The interface was developed jointly with Stromnetz Hamburg and other charge‑point operators (CPOs) in work package 2, and the resulting application programming interface (API) between the distribution network and the CPO back‑end was used in a test version and updated throughout the project. The solution was applied for the first time to a high number of charging points and vehicles, ensuring that the infrastructure met the technical prerequisites and that controllable building loads and on‑site generation could be incorporated into building optimisation.

ChargePoint also researched and developed business models for scalable EV uptake, and it co‑led work packages 4.1 (testing and implementation of charging and user management in an operational context) and 5.1 (operator and business models with the real‑estate sector) together with partner Ubitricity. An additional work package, 7 (ELBE Secure), was added to verify the IT interface and the smart‑meter gateway. The project ran from 8 October 2018 to 30 September 2022 and was funded under the grant code 01MZ18014C. The interface was presented to standardisation bodies such as the German Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (DKE) and the German Association for Power Supply (FNN), contributing to the broader adoption of open, non‑proprietary solutions across Europe.

The collaboration involved ChargePoint Germany, Ubitricity, Stromnetz Hamburg, and other CPOs. ChargePoint’s role encompassed the design and implementation of the OpenADR‑based interface, the development of the API, and the creation of scalable business models. Ubitricity co‑led the work packages, while Stromnetz Hamburg supplied grid data and facilitated integration. The project’s outcomes—an open, scalable, grid‑friendly charging solution and accompanying business models—are intended to be commercialised and deployed beyond Hamburg, offering a cost‑effective alternative to grid upgrades for cities with similar distribution network constraints.