How managed charging saves EV drivers money while protecting the electric grid

You might have heard that electric vehicles (EVs) are a little different from gas-powered cars.  But even seasoned EV drivers, the folks who know exactly when to lift the pedal to come to that full regenerative stop, might not know much about managed charging for EVs or the role it plays in protecting the electric grid. As more and more EVs hit the road and, just as importantly, get plugged into an increasingly strained electricity system, here’s what you need to know about the opportunity that managed charging presents.  

‍What is managed charging?

Broadly, managed charging is the optimization of EV charging for cost and/or electric grid benefits. The EV industry generally breaks down managed charging into two flavors, passive managed charging and active managed charging. WeaveGrid's software unlocks a third managed charging solution, DISCO (Distribution Integrated Smart Charging Orchestration), which optimizes charging for electric distribution constraints. Here's how these work: 

• Passive managed charging is “scheduled” by humans, who set charging to happen during the most cost-effective times to use electricity, such as after 9pm when businesses are closed and households are winding down. A classic example of this approach is EV time-of-use (TOU) rates, which encourage charging at grid-friendly times of day with cheaper rates during these off-peak times.
• Active managed charging provides an entity, usually a electric utility,  permission to directly control a customer’s EV load to achieve grid benefits like reducing stress on the grid, charging when renewables are abundant, or saving drivers more money than TOU rates alone (often, 3am is even better cost-wise than 9pm). With active managed charging, humans still indicate when they need their vehicle to be charged but the charging happens automatically to benefit the entire grid system. And since EVs tend to be plugged in overnight but only need a few hours of charging, active managed charging can almost always balance the needs of both driver and grid. 
• DISCO balances EV charging loads to protect distribution assets, defer infrastructure upgrades, and enable informed grid planning. While passive and active managed charging shift charging to minimize stress on the bulk system, DISCO gets down to the local level to avoid overloading of assets like local transformers in individual neighborhoods so utilities can think big picture and hyper-local. Click here to learn more about DISCO.

‍OK, but how does managed charging save me money?

By switching to an EV you’ve already tossed out that line in your budget labeled “gasoline,” but by charging your EV at the most cost-effective, energy-efficient times for the grid you can also save on electricity costs. Whether you schedule charging or let your EV charge automatically, managed charging maximizes those savings.

Of course we’re not trying to swap monitoring gas prices with tracking electricity rates. The simplest way to see benefits from managed charging is to join a managed charging program, typically run by utility companies or electric co-ops. Otherwise it can be hard to parse out your EV charging costs as they’re folded into your overall household electricity bill. 

Assuming your energy provider does offer a managed charging program, joining usually involves an online application followed by permission for their software to connect with your eligible vehicle or internet-connected home charger. Many programs also offer rebates or other incentives for joining, and solutions like WeaveGrid can break out your EV charging in reports so you can see exactly how much you’re spending (and almost always, saving, compared to gas).     

Now, cars are critical to daily life (waking up without your phone fully charged, annoying – waking up without being able to make school drop off- disaster). So delegating some control over charging may seem a little…anxiety-inducing. But in most managed charging programs, drivers set guardrails by inputting exactly when they want their vehicles ready and at what level of charge (can’t do that with a gas car), informing the algorithms balancing EV charging with grid loads. 

So whether passive or active managed charging, the goal is to save you money on charging while adhering to your driving needs and expressed preferences. That’s why both types of managed charging are great tools for charging smarter, cutting down on manual charging, and taking advantage of the lowest electricity rates available to you.

Wait, why haven’t I heard of this before?

Because in a world of predominantly gas-powered cars it, well, wasn’t a thing. You might fill up based on the gas price on the board at a given station, but you probably don’t usually pull up to a gas station and not fill up, and you definitely don’t stop to think about optimizing for the huge storage tank of gas under your feet.

EVs have sophisticated onboard computers, or telematics, and are most often plugged in at home, often overnight. We hear a lot about public charging stations but according to the US Department of Energy, 80% of EV charging happens at home, and your EV also doesn’t usually need an entire night to charge its battery. This means you have a lot more control over how your EV charges and when, creating a host of new opportunities to charge at the most affordable time to save money or even cut fossil fuels out of your EV charging entirely by using renewables (i.e.: at night when the wind is still blowing but electricity demand is low). 

In sum, the electrification of transportation makes “filling up” a much more dynamic experience that we can actually optimize for net zero goals. And in aggregate, this opens the door to orchestrating EV charging so that drivers save on charging and the electricity distribution system can handle new EVs without breaking a sweat. 

What does managed charging have to do with decarbonization?

Electrifying transportation is good for drivers and the planet, but can come with challenges for an electric grid that wasn’t designed with demand from EVs in mind. And as the climate gets hotter than ever (and sometimes colder, or wetter, than ever) we need an electric grid that is resilient, dynamic, and responsive to sudden changes in demand.

Adding a Level 2 charger at home can add 2-3 homes worth of demand to the grid and accelerate wear and tear on assets like transformers that already have backlogged supply chains. This is all before you even get to other new sources of electricity demand coming online like manufacturing facilities or the data centers making ChatGPT possible. We could meet this new demand with fossil fuels but we can also use software to better balance the load on the distribution system, reduce new infrastructure needed and pair clean transportation with clean energy sources.

For drivers, the promise of managed charging is even more savings on their monthly bills by going electric, but if you’re a human who uses electricity, then you also benefit from a world where EVs are assets to the electric grid. In this world, EVs are more than just new demand for utilities to meet with fossil fuel plants or expensive upgrades passed on in higher rates, and cars in general aren’t just self-contained carbon dioxide machines. In this world, EVs are clean and reliable grid assets getting you where you need to go and working in sync with a smarter, greener, and more flexible electricity system. 

EV driver? Click here to find out about benefits for EV drivers.

‍If you’re a utility wanting to find out more about how WeaveGrid enables EV-grid integration, get in touch. 

Article contributed by WeaveGrid's Driver Marketing Lead, Manuel Gallardo.