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Robert's keynote at INTERFACE Benelux 2026
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In this keynote, FLEXECHARGE CTO Robert Brehm explores how the energy architecture of EV charging is evolving—from standalone charging points to fully integrated, grid-aware energy systems.
As EV adoption accelerates across Europe, Charge Point Operators (CPOs), utilities, and energy providers face increasing pressure from grid constraints, renewable integration, and regulatory frameworks such as EU AFIR and national grid codes (e.g., Germany’s BNetzA).
This session breaks down what a modern EV charging energy architecture looks like in practice—and why it is essential for scaling infrastructure efficiently.
What You’ll Learn
Why traditional EV charging setups are no longer sufficient
How grid constraints are reshaping charging infrastructure design
The role of smart charging, load management, and energy optimisation
How to integrate battery storage (BESS) and renewables into charging hubs
Why compliance with EU AFIR and national regulations requires new system architectures
How CPOs can transition into active energy market participants
Why This Matters
The future of EV charging is not just about installing chargers—it’s about building grid-integrated energy systems. Operators who adopt the right architecture can:
Avoid costly grid upgrades
Reduce operational costs through energy optimisation
Unlock new revenue streams via flexibility markets
Ensure compliance across European markets
View transcript
I'm Robert. I'm one of the co-founders of FlexiCharge, actually the original initiator of FlexiCharge in 2018, together with Jan, who's sitting over there. I'm the CTO. And yeah, what shall I say? I mean, the scene is set, and now I just have to walk the red carpet, which everybody laid out during the day. So I'm going to talk about the new energy architecture of EV charging. Just a few words to FlexiCharge. Again, I think half of you know it. Yeah, we are a software company. We are focusing on load energy management, specifically for charge point operators for public and commercial charging. We provide 360 degree turnkey solution for load energy management to tackle all the problems CPOs have with load energy management. We are headquartered in Copenhagen, and we have two offices in Germany, one in Munich and one in Lippstadt, which is close to Dortmund, where I come from. We have 30 employees now, scaled quite a lot the last years. Again, 100% focus on public commercial charging. So implicitly, you can imagine we have a lot of high power chargers connected to our Harmony platform. Megawatt charging now as well at one or two or three places in Norway and Sweden. The market, yes, you can see it there. It's Benelux, it's Scandinavia, and it's Dach. And now we are doing a few first steps into France and Spain also. We are working with the leading European CPOs, some of which are here, which gave a talk, including Peter. Again, for us, a few years when we started, we really decided we want to be the preferred partner for those which do professional EV charging, which roll out charging infrastructure at a professional level and for commercial charging. And that's what we aim for. So it's a really, really narrow focus on these customer segment. And that also distinguishes us from many, many, many of those competitors we have out there. So to be really CPO focused. Yeah, Job said it. I loved him for that. What is the real challenge? He said two years ago, everybody was still struggling with how can I keep my charger connected? Why it's not reconnecting via OCPP if it's going down? Why does the Modbus connection doesn't work? So it was a lot about operations. So operational excellence for the last five years, I think it was the key KPI. And with that, of course, maximizing user experience, right? Maximizing charger experience is one of the key KPIs and the key challenges still today. And there are a few which really, really do that very well. There's a lot of elements in there that you have a proper technology stack, proper hardware, proper software layers, but also obviously also good operations and rollout. And we have a few solutions for that. We don't need to talk about that today. But the challenge now is becoming more and more the grid. So you have to do all that, maximize your main KPI to provide that under-constrained grid connection. So there's a binding constraint here where the limited grid connection availability is one of the challenges. And then nowadays, it's also becoming more and more the commercial optimization, right? So it's a more competitive market than it has been a few years ago. And it will become even more competitive. Everybody knows that. You can see what is going on now. Who wants to sell their chargers in Germany and the Netherlands, right? From the big CPOs. So there are some consolidation already going on. How can FlexiCharge help with that? Our Harmony platform, as I have said earlier, it's designed to basically protect the charging experience. So the bottom layer of our solution ensures that under a constrained grid connection, you can still provide maximum user experience or have, let's say it's the other way around, minimal user experience degradation. You can operate within the grid reality. It basically means, and that is a core topic here, we have been one of the first actually integrating batteries to commercial charging infrastructures. So, and provide the features and technologies or features and mechanisms to basically, yeah, orchestrate EV charging with co-located beds under grid constraint, at grid constraint sites. And then the, not new thing, but the thing which is becoming more and more important, and we have seen that also in the previous talks now, is obviously you want to stack commercial value on top, right? If you have a battery there, right? In the Netherlands, you have a primary use case where the battery is basically, the primary use case is to overcome your limited grid connection. In Scandinavia, it's the other way around, right? You have enough grid, but then you don't utilize your grid connection fully, so why don't you put a battery there to generate a different, an additional revenue stream? So, this is where, or how, or the FlexiCharge Harmony platform is designed for, to turn charger co-located batteries from passive reactive equipment into intelligent energy assets, and that keyword we have also heard a few times today. Another important fact of our solution of our platform is basically openness, because we believe it's partnerships which make this work at the end, or how it works out, so you need strong partnerships, and if you want partnerships, like with BSPs, with battery players, with CPMS systems, and so on and so forth, you need a solution which is open, and which is open not only at the bottom, to integrate every charger with any interface it provides, OCPP, Modbus, any power meter, any battery, or even in Germany these crazy DSO requirements, you also, you need to provide that at the bottom, but you also need to provide at the top, the integration into different, let's say, cloud server solutions, right? CPMS, when we talk to EPO, we have the charge planning system, we have transfer management system, we have BSPs, but what we also see is bigger, larger CPOs, they typically tend to tell us, we don't care about your UI, we want to integrate into our own dashboard, into our own control center, and we want to integrate into our own data lake. So therefore, I think part of the story, it's not only to provide local load management, it's to provide commercial value, of course, but it's also to have the technology and the platform, which integrates into your technology stacks. This is why we have designed it like this. So what we provide is basically enablement, so operations at grid constraints sites, with load and grid management, really site level here, and on top, we have designed our Harmony platform, to put optimizing on top, with, for example, peak shaving, and battery best value stacking, we'll dive a bit deeper in that. So basically, enablement first, so that's always the bottom layer, we can see that in logistics now as well, that it's always at the beginning, don't blow the fuse, we have limited grid, I need to charge no matter what, right? And then on top comes reducing operational costs and generating flex market revenues, call it as you wish. You said it. And then it must be true. So enable commercial charging, I think basically I said it, so limited grid, provide maximum charging experience, cope with residual load, that means if you have a building, or other uncontrollable load at the site, be able to cope with that, and still provide whatever is available, to the customer at the charging station, also integrate, for example, how much you allocate to a charging station, to a charging session, and how much is actually utilized, yeah, take that into account, which we call dynamic allocation, and then cope with all these, compliance topics, right? DSO control, that's a really hot topic, right now in Germany, it's becoming more and more complicated, and you need a solid solution, to cope with that, to have solid rollout, of your infrastructure. Then optimizing, and here we are focusing, on best value stacking, I think as I said, it was two and a half years ago, when we integrated, the first battery, which was a Pixie battery, I still remember that, very, very early, CPOs, they were still, okay, what we need the battery for, what we need the battery for, and then two years later, I would say, like, well, a year ago, it really started to pick up, with the CPOs, probably also had to do, with the availability of battery, battery prices, and so on and so forth, that we saw, CPOs picking up, and obviously, as I said, our ambition, is to be the preferred partner, it's again, about partnerships here, for CPOs, for co-located batteries, and revenue optimization, and also cost minimization, right, so by today, we have integrated, I wouldn't say, with the major, but with many batteries, some of which are also here today, and gave talks, and with that, we provide battery value stacking, so again, the first, the major incentive, to provide peak shaving, boost charging, really ensure, the customer, at the charging station, gets maximum charging experience, maximum user experience, with boost charging, and then, create value, or introduce, a cost savings, with peak shaving, we also heard that here, before, so I don't need to, talk too much about it, dynamic tariff integration, we call that, self consumption arbitrage, so basically, you buy when it's cheap, and then you discharge, the battery, when you have, when you have load, where the energy price, is high, and then, we have the part, which we have heard, in the last session, or the in-belline trading markets, where you can, create additional revenue, by integration, with, BSP, so, we are integrating, across the best, ecosystem, and, convert, technical, compatibility, into commercial optimization, so that, that is our goal, again, nowadays, it's not only optimization, it's also, being, commercially, competitive, so, as I said, for, for trading, in-bellings, and ancillary services, we integrate, with, BSPs, in, in, in Europe, and we, build up, partnerships, some of, where we have, contracted partnerships, some of, where we are, where we are, in talks right now, it depends a bit, on the market, but, that's, that's an important, yeah, part of our, yeah, journey, for the partnerships, to, to work with the leading, European, BSPs, to provide, the maximum, commercial value, and the optimal, additional revenue streams, for our, customers, the CPOs, again, what you can see here, on the right side, is a bit, the architecture, you can see here, the, sort of, enablement, site level, load management, to ensure, you know, your, your battery, is being used, for your primary use case, to provide boost charging, maximum user experience, overcome, grid constraints, and then, on top, we build our, what we call, a VPP layer, where we aggregate, sites, into virtual power plants, and then, provide that, as an aggregated, flexibility, or capacity, to, the, BSP, to basically, get, the maximum, value out of it. So, what does that mean, in terms of, business case, we have a little, example case here, where we have, a site, with 1.6 megawatt, grid connection, with a half megawatt, battery, half megawatt, hours, battery storage system, and, what we can see, what you can get out, of a typical, charging site, what you can save, without even, having a battery, there, is 25, even 30%, on peak shaving, just with the chargers, right, we see a lot of, not a lot, but some CPOs, for example, in Germany, they even have that, as a policy, they always take, 66% grid connection, of, what they have, in, installed power, right, so here, you can, for that site, you can, already, reduce, your grid connection, or your contracted, grid connection, by 400 kilowatt, and, if you install, the battery, in addition, you can, get another, 500k out of it, which makes, in total, 900 kilowatt, you can, reduce, your site, this 1.6 megawatt, site, down to, where are we, 700, right, so, in the Netherlands, for the, contracted grid, limit reduction, of 900k, you save, approximately, 26,000 a year, a year, and, in addition, due to the battery, which provides, a peak shaving, you can, get another, 21,000k, just, by, installing, the battery, then, comes the, self-consumption arbitrage, what I, just explained, right, this really, depends on, the price spread, a day, it's, probably, being a good day, there, with a good price spread, but, you buy in, when it's cheap, you, do a projection, of your, your, your, power, energy demand, for the next day, and, then, you use the battery, to feed your local load, right, when you have, times of high utilization, again, it depends on the, on the utilization pattern, if you talk, a McDonald's, or Burger King site, or you talk, a public, charging site, at the, whatever, A3 in Germany, that depends a bit, on the case, but, there's, quite some money, you can make there, as well, 19k, in this case, and, then, you have all the, in-bellings, trading, incillary services, we have seen, we are taking it, really conservative here, so, typically, well, that's what, statistics, say, in the Netherlands, 240,000, euro per year, with a battery, if it's just a, standalone battery, no charging, but then, obviously, again, you have to consider, here, your primary use case, which is, peak shaving, or, boost charging, and, so, we, assume, that the battery, is 12 hours, available a day, for participating, for, in-bellings, for trading, and, ancillary services, so, all in all, how do we see, the new energy, um, architecture, for EV charging, is, that charging sites, are, becoming, intelligent energy assets, not, just, physical hardware, which you operate, but, they, will, become, intelligent energy assets, so, you, with, grid constraints, charging, you will need, best, and, I think, we were, pretty clear here, as well, I also, like the panel, I would have, had the same answer, there's no way, there's no way, trust, no way, look at, BYD, look at, all these trucks, we have sites, in Sweden, where, there's trucks, coming every day, it doesn't work, without a best, it just, doesn't work, they come there, they charge, with two, three, 400 kilowatt, right, and, you can never have, enough grid connection, except you have a, server hub, or whatever, grid connection, with a 20 megawatt, but, typically, it will not work, without a best, the best, will need orchestration, as you see, right, it's really important, to understand, that you have to, orchestrate, for peak shaving, and boost charging, the chargers, with the battery, yeah, to do it, in correlation, and not stand alone, this orchestration, and general scaling, will need openness, we see these dynamics, right, you see BSPs, coming out, every two weeks, there's a new BSP, new markets, new integrations, for logistics, fleet management systems, and so on, and so forth, so, API first, I think, closed systems, will not be able, to keep up, with the pace, specifically, for public, and commercial, charging, I strongly believe, only open systems, will survive, because it's, the orchestration, of specialized system, to actually, make it happen, and to make it work, reliable, so, what we aim for, is, to become, the preferred, partner here, for charger, co-located batteries, and optimization, of both, across Benelux, and also, in the, in the greater Europe, and I think, we are doing, a quite good job, so, this is where, we want to lead, one word, to our, our vision, because I think, it is, it is really important, to have a look, at that as well, how we see it, in the future, is, is, obviously, you have this, bottom layer, side level, optimize, connect, I think, we have been talking, about that, for five years, pretty much, under control, not really, with the batteries, it's becoming, I'm, sometimes, I feel, like, back in the past, what we had, five, six years ago, with chargers, we are seeing, that unfortunately, now with batteries, so, if you do, a MertBose integration, with a battery, it might work, it might not work, it might take two weeks, but it can also, take three months, depending on the, on the battery, so, that's some, some, still some, some way to go, but I think, we have built, a quite nice, architecture, to cope with that, but then, what you need, on top, is, you need to have control, well, first of all, you want to have, your data, you want to have, analytics, you want to have, the data platform, and the operations clear, you want to know, how does your energy flow, what is my self consumption, for a logistics company, for a depot, you want to make a decision, how much do I actually, pay per kilowatt, or per kilometer, can I send two more trucks, to a specific depot, without risking, that I don't have enough, energy, do I need to install, more battery capacity, at a specific site, to still serve my roots, these are the, the questions, in the future, CPOs, and also, logistic companies, need to, need to answer, and then you have, all these layers, to determine, what is my, what is my load, what is my generation, what is my flexibility, how much flexibility, do I actually have, and now, think about the future, we have trucks standing there, now they talk, half a megawatt battery, half a megawatt hour, battery standing there, now you have 10 trucks, you have five megawatt hour, standing there, at the, in Germany, right, overnight, or on a Sunday, or on, when they have, a firearm, right, at six o'clock, so, that, that's what we are talking, so you need, great forecasting, and you need to, determine what type, of flexibility you have, right, we talked about that, and we have seen that, you need the integration, with pricing forecast, you need this, multi-objective approach, multi-objective, value stacking, to really get the maximum, out of your, of your, yeah, of your portfolio, of your energy assets, and then at the end, as said, you need, you need integration, integration, integration, yeah, and that is not only to, the BRP there, that's also to a BSP, we are seeing now, fleet management systems, we are seeing planning systems, and so on and so forth, so that's how we see, the future energy platform, of, of CPOs, that's it, thank you, thank you,