How M2M can support urban living of the future

By Holger Lenz, Business Development for Cinterion Wireless Modules

Worldwide road traffic is one of the largest contributors to global warming by carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission as well as air pollution due to nitrogen oxide (NO_X) emission and increased concentrations of fine particulates, all of which have a major impact on air quality and human health. The European Environment Agency (EEA) identified in its 2008 report Transport at a Crossroads, that growing transport demand is undermining efforts to solve many of the world's most pressing environmental problems. Transport sector greenhouse gas emissions in Europe increased by 28 % over the period 1990-2006. The report further suggests that defining a pathway towards sustainable transport requires long-term vision, strong leadership and innovative technology.

In major metropolitan and urban developments such as the Mega Projects in the Middle East, traffic planning becomes a crucial component of the overall project's success. Intelligent public transport systems are a key element to reduce CO₂ pollution and other harmful substances in the air. But overall environmental success can only be realized when individual vehicle traffic is redesigned with innovative, futuristic, and green transportation solutions. The cities of the future are being designed to support green, sustainable metropolitan living as well as to meet the individual needs of its residents.

Car manufacturers have recognized the promise electric vehicles offer as a solution to the overwhelming challenge of abating air pollution caused by traffic in large metropolitan areas. However, electric vehicles only achieve the overall goal of reducing CO₂ emissions and the related greenhouse effect if the electricity used for individual vehicles is generated without carbon dioxide emissions. Electric cars of the future will need to be charged at environmentally friendly or "green-powered" electric car charging stations to meet this objective. In addition, current battery technology limitations make it necessary for electric cars to be fueled or charged more often than gas powered cars and for longer periods of time – battery charging can last up to several hours each incidence.

Electric car travel will only be accepted and adopted by the driver if the daily impact on the user is positive and the technology is as convenient as possible. Drivers need to be able to conveniently and easily recharge their vehicles at the typical places they visit throughout the course of daily life. For instance, the typical parking lot must become a smart charging station so that drivers can park, plug in, and then work, shop, or enjoy dinner at a restaurant while their vehicle refuels.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) technology is an important enabling technology to support an unmanned and widely distributed electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Wireless M2M communication offers an easy and flexible way to connect individual charging stations to the station's control center. All charging stations, whether a single station at a restaurant or a cluster of stations in a parking lot or at a mall, need to communicate crucial data and commands back and forth to the control center. With M2M communication, the control center can remotely manage all charging station tasks such as user authentication, start and stop commands, transmission of usage data, credit card payment procedures and more. M2M also enables the control center to remotely manage equipment failure due to charging station defect and it can immediately detect abnormal behavior due to vandalism. With M2M technology, the control center can help drivers find the next closest and available charging station by location based services. And when the charging session is complete, M2M technology enables user notifications, delivered via SMS to the driver's mobile phone, informing the customer that battery charging is finished and their vehicle is ready for travel.

This new electric car charging infrastructure is mutually beneficial for drivers as well as shops, restaurants and other charging station owners in the network. For instance, shops and restaurants can offer free, value-added charging to attract new customers during slow periods. In addition, owners are able to generate new revenue streams by the electric charging station itself. And station owners can use M2M technology to send SMS and location based messages to users alerting them of special rates and other value added services, which can help increases overall sales.

Wireless M2M communication greatly simplifies reporting and billing processes related to car charging. For instance, upon completion of each individual charging process, electricity meter readings can be automatically delivered to the control center and consumption data and pricing information is immediately available to the customer online via a secure access account. Customer billing can be managed easily on a case-by-case basis with billing occurring once per week, once per month, prepaid or charges can be partially covered via loyalty programs of shop, restaurant or charging station owners. In addition, charging station owners can use precise meter information generated by M2M to accurately track and make payments to the electric utility companies.

Today, smart power grids are increasingly prominent and greatly ease the burden on our environment. M2M technology enables easy integration and control of charging stations within the grid. In a smart power grid, all power generators, such as solar plants, wind mills and other power sources, are able to automatically exchange current consumption, and generation data with utility companies and power consumers. These include individual, industrial and enterprise energy consumers such as charging stations. In this way, the entire grid can be controlled more efficiently and specific power consumers can be temporally switched off or slowed down to accommodate the more immediate needs of other power consumers. Electric vehicle charging stations are the ideal flexible energy consumers and predestinated to act as such in a smart grid. For instance, if a vehicle is parked and connected to a charging station for several hours while the consumer enjoys a movie followed by dinner, it would be no problem to speed down the charging process by reducing the charging current or even temporarily stopping the charging process for several minutes. Drivers would be asked during charging station activation whether they are willing to participate in a smart grid charging program at a reduced rate that could potentially extend the time it takes to charge a vehicle. Programs such as these are a huge benefit to electricity utility companies who are no longer forced to generate additional electricity during peak consumption. Instead, utilities can shift the load by switching off power for consumption that is not time critical. And since less power is generated overall, with fewer fossil fuels being burned to produce it, smart grid applications such as these help reduce CO₂ pollution in the environment.

Wireless M2M-enabled vehicle charging stations provide users with the enormous benefits and features of a completely networked system no matter where the station is located - urban, rural and even remote locations. Wireless networks are available everywhere and GSM standards, from GPRS to EDGE up the 3G technologies like UMTS and HSPA, support a transparent IP connection to the Internet and therefore to every destination around the globe. Mobile network operators, or carriers, offer attractive M2M solution pricing to encourage use of the technology because M2M solutions use wireless networks very efficiently without overloading the system. In the calculation of the total cost of ownership of an electric charging station or a cluster of charging stations, the most attractive connectivity packages are kilobyte accurate or volume contracts which bill for all devices owned in total. Wireless M2M charging stations are easy to install and can be put in operation virtually anyplace in the world. And because the electricity meter is integrated in the charging station and the meter data are always available via M2M communications, all the operator needs to get started is a simple power cable. The charging station is immediately connected via the wireless communication network without digging and laying of communication cables to each charging station. Essentially, the smart electric vehicle charging station is a simple plug and play system which can be installed just about anywhere – at each street light, parking lot or home garage.

Wireless M2M technology offers immediate, easy and cost effective global connectivity making futuristic concepts of metropolitan living attainable – today! And Cinterion Wireless Modules (www.cinterion.com), the worldwide leader in wireless communication modules for M2M applications is leading the way by offering unprecedented global customer and engineering support along with the most innovative, high quality products in the market.