Business Model Approaches Based on Suitable Pricing for EV Charging Infrastructure Providers in the Context of Energy Communities

Abstract

The steadily increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) combined with the unbroken interest in energy communities (ECs) opens a new field of business for charging infrastructure providers (CIPs). Therefore, in a first step, this work analyzes three different use cases of how a CIP could engage with ECs: (i) as active EC member operating charging points, (ii) as contractor (no active EC participation) for charging points, or (iii) as active EC member operating charging points in combination with battery storage. In a second step, based on these use cases, the backbones of every business model (BM) are elaborated in detail, namely pricing structures and resulting revenue streams. To get a complete picture of a CIP's BM, the business model canvas (BMC) is used and applied to the first use case. Results suggest that CIPs could generate sufficient revenue streams for economically viable BMs. However, the economic strength of such BMs depends significantly - among other things - on the pricing structure within an EC. This implies that CIPs' revenue streams would differ for each EC, and can also change over time, leading to a certain degree of uncertainty. However, it is still expected that innovative CIPs will set foot in the field of ECs, not least for reasons of exploiting first-mover market benefits, marketing advantages and the chance to initiate novel cooperations.