Eaton Joins Forces With EU-supported Flow Consortium to Develop and Demonstrate Integrated Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

Intelligent power management company Eaton announced its involvement in a pan-European research and innovation project to deliver the integrated technologies and business models needed to support mass deployment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

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“Our work on integrating charging infrastructure into buildings is supporting the rapid move to electric vehicles as part of the energy transition and we’re very proud to be investing heavily in the people, technologies, and programs to accelerate the global drive towards a low-carbon future.”

Supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation program, the €9.87M ($10.41M) project will span four years to March 2026, its scope covering the entire electric vehicle charging value chain. The FLOW project consortium, which includes 24 external partners and six leading universities across Europe, will be led by the Fundació Institut De Recerca En Energia De Catalunya.

Eaton’s role in the consortium will involve further developing electric vehicle charging technologies, as well as demonstrating electric vehicle charging solutions, based on experience advancing its Buildings as a Grid approach to uniting the power needs of buildings and electric vehicles with on-site renewable energy generation.

The research and innovation focus will extend across vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) capabilities that enable more system flexibility; DC-DC charging (direct current to direct current) that yields both power quality and control benefits; and further work on Eaton’s proprietary Buildings as a Grid Energy Management System that supports forecasting, optimization, and other essential services. To combine the various technologies into a complete solution, several Eaton business units will collaborate on the project—including the pan-European Eaton Research Labs team and the Eaton Center for Intelligent Power in Dublin, Ireland.

Stefan Costea, regional technology manager, Eaton Research Labs, said: “As electric vehicles grow in popularity across Europe, a comprehensive range of fully integrated charging technologies is urgently needed to support mass deployment and enable valuable new services. As a key partner in the FLOW project, we’re thrilled to be developing optimal solutions for electric vehicle charging, V2G, V2X, and energy management. We will demonstrate these technologies at three test labs—at the Eaton European Innovation Center in Prague, at University College Dublin, and at the Fundació Institut De Recerca En Energia De Catalunya, in Barcelona. Additionally, we will be supporting large scale technology demonstrations in Rome and Copenhagen with our energy management systems.”

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For the demonstrations in Prague and Barcelona, Eaton will be collaborating closely with Heliox, a market leader in fast charging solutions. University College Dublin and nearby Maynooth University will work with Eaton in Ireland, while RWTH Aachen University, in Germany, will partner with Eaton in Prague on a techno-economic analysis of electric vehicle charging infrastructure use cases. In Rome and Copenhagen, Eaton will collaborate on energy management system interoperability with companies well-known for transmission and distribution: ENEL, Terna, and Areti, in addition to partners at Ricerca Sul Sistema Energetico and the Technical University of Denmark.

Tim Darkes, President, Corporate and Electrical, EMEA, Eaton, explained the context for Eaton’s involvement in the FLOW consortium, saying: “Our work on integrating charging infrastructure into buildings is supporting the rapid move to electric vehicles as part of the energy transition and we’re very proud to be investing heavily in the people, technologies, and programs to accelerate the global drive towards a low-carbon future.”

Jörgen von Bodenhausen, senior manager, Government Programs, Eaton, also added: “We continually seek out opportunities to combine our global scale and expertise with that of world-class industrial and academic partners, thus magnifying our own innovation efforts. From building-in energy management, to DC-DC charging, our work on the FLOW project will help pioneer new solutions to accelerate the commercialization and mass deployment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and create whole new value propositions for both companies and customers.”

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