The energy transition needs flexibility, and hardly any technology offers as much of it as bidirectional charging. For many experts, it is far more than just an important building block: it is the game-changer on the path to a renewable energy system.

The reason is obvious: electric vehicles bring enormous storage capacity that today remains largely untapped. When this storage is intelligently integrated into the energy system, the resulting flexibility opens up a wide range of new solutions and business cases, from self-consumption optimisation and grid-friendly charging all the way to feeding energy back into the grid. And the best part: end customers are already familiar with the concept and want to use it, as soon as the legal framework is in place.

KEO has been involved in this topic from the start, both on the technical side and at the standardisation level. Our goal: to make bidirectional charging a success that is interoperable with EEBUS for everyone.

In the predecessor project BDL (Bidirectional Charging Management), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) from 2019 to 2022, numerous innovations were already developed to prototype maturity. Many of them are now firmly established in the industry discussion:

The Next Step: BDL Next

Today, KEO is a partner in the successor project BDL Next (2023 – 2027), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE). The goal: to finalise the existing ideas and make them ready for the mass market, turning proven prototypes into solutions that can be deployed at scale.

What began as a prototype back then is shaping tomorrow’s standards. We are staying on it, so that bidirectional charging can fully unfold its contribution to the energy transition.

In April 2026, the project reached a major milestone. At a handover event at BMW Welt in Munich, field trial participants received their new BMW iX3 vehicles, officially kicking off the pilot operation. Over the coming months, these vehicles will be actively integrated into the energy processes of the project partners, testing optimised charging and discharging while ensuring the individual mobility needs of each driver.

The field trial brings together the full smart home device ecosystem: wallboxes, home energy management systems (HEMS), smart meter gateways, and the vehicles themselves. The latest fundamental use cases for bidirectional charging are being developed and applied directly in this real-world setting.

Within BDL Next, KEO is responsible for the work item „Interoperable Communication“. This covers the ongoing development within the project team as well as active contributions to the relevant standardisation bodies, including EEBUS (VDE 2829-6 with CLS.EEDI), OCPP, and ISO 15118-20.

Interoperability is where bidirectional charging succeeds or fails at scale. A wallbox, a HEMS, a smart meter gateway, and an EV from different manufacturers must speak the same language reliably. This is the foundation KEO has been building for years, and BDL Next is where it gets proven in the field.

We are proud that KEO is among the first to implement and test software solutions for the new bidirectional charging use cases, particularly Dynamic Bidirectional EV Charging (DBEVC) and EV State of Charge (EVSOC).

If you are interested in gaining early insights into these use cases or in actively participating in initial results, we invite you to get in touch with the KEO team. We can also provide dedicated test environments to prepare your devices for the bidirectional future.

KEO is pleased to be part of the BDL Next project team, together with the following project partners:

BMW Group, Compleo, FfE (Forschungsstelle für Energiewirtschaft), Bayernwerk Netz, TenneT, EBZ Business School, E.ON, KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), and Universität Passau.

Read more about the field trial kickoff on the official project page: Startschuss zum Pilotbetrieb – Fahrzeugübergabe