Smart Charging: the smart solution that meets all your needs

When it comes to striking a balance between electric vehicle drivers’ charging needs, electricity grid restrictions, costs and carbon footprint, Charge Point Operators (otherwise known as CPOs, as we already saw here) play a key role. You already know they run and operate chargers – but did you know they can also help you to control your energy consumption by activating charging at the very best time, for the best price? This innovative solution is still little-known on the market and is called Smart Charging.

What is Smart Charging?

Smart Charging is a charging solution that allows users to charge their vehicles according to their needs, using low-carbon energy. Concretely, if you plug your electric vehicle on a charger, and your charging session starts at the best time for everyone (which doesn’t always mean ‘as soon as possible’), we are talking about smart charging.

How does it work?

Smart Charging is based on two key concepts: 

• Flexibility, which involves moving a charging session at specific times, reconciling several temporals, energetic and financial constraints;
• Charging session optimisation across multiple users, which allows to smooth out global needs and ensure access to low-carbon and cheaper electricity.

In practice, these principles are based on:

1. Prioritising charging sessions 

Some people will need to charge their vehicle quickly (needing to leave immediately, for example), while others will park and plug in their vehicle for long periods of time. This makes it possible to set up a charging prioritisation feature, in which specific profiles are defined:

• Residential profiles: people who live in the area or region who are used to charge their vehicles in the same place over long periods. Thanks to this status, they can often benefit from a subscription with preferential rates.
• Non-residential/standard profiles: non-residents who generally park for shorter periods (two hours, on average). We are talking about “spot” charging.

Example 1

You’re a small goods transporter with a fleet of service vehicles. Three drivers get back from their rounds at the end of the day, and leave their vehicles to charge overnight. If one of your drivers has several rounds to complete the following day, you can assign him a premium profile, giving him maximum power from a charger at any time. The other two drivers with standard profiles, meanwhile, will charge with their profiles’ minimal power setting.

2. Power distribution between charge points 

Demand for renewable energy may exceed the energy available at certain times of the day. Smart Charging gives you a range of different options:

• Charging session starts when solar power energy production is available;
• Charging session is scheduled in off-peak hours (depending on your energy contract). 

To sum up, by benifiting on renewable energy at times when it is less expensive, you can ultimately optimise the cost of your charging sessions.

Example 2

Three drivers get back from their rounds at the end of the day, and leave their vehicles to charge overnight. Thanks to Smart Charging, their charging sessions will only start when renewable electricity becomes available.

3. Setting a charging cap 

Finally, depending on the energy consumption of your site and the maximum power available, you can dynamically assign a power limit to your chargers for a specific period to avoid a spike in over-consumption.

Example 3

Before you install chargers on your site, you absolutely must know how much energy you consume, and your energy contract’s maximum power. Let’s suppose your energy contract gives you a maximum of 36 kW, and that over the course of an average day, your site uses 20 kWh, dropping to 10 kWh at night. Then, this gives your chargers “average” available power of 16 kW by day, and 26 kW by night. But you also need to manage peaks and adapt to the realities of your building.

Dynamic charging cap means that the power assigned to your chargers will vary throughout the day and night based on how much your site consumes in real time. Another advantage of this system: you can charge your electric vehicles without having to take out an energy contract with higher power, essentially meaning it’s just as efficient while costing less: who says better?