A volatile electricity market
The energy crisis is making life worse for all of us, across the globe. But the opportunities offered by smart charging technology guarantee an undeniable win for EV drivers, enabling them to consume power in the fastest, safest and cheapest way possible – while benefitting the planet at the same time.
The brilliance of smart charging lies in the charger’s connection to the software behind it, or the “backend” service. Unlike traditional charging connections, smart chargers receive a constant stream of real-time data from the backend, which enables remote monitoring of the charger with near-immediate effect.
The conditioned distribution of energy, that smart charging indicates, is based on multiple considerations including safety regulations, renewable energy prioritisation and cost efficiency, and is in fact beneficial across the board, with advantages reaching every moving part of the energy grid.
The most obvious of these, as mentioned, is the advantage incurred by the EV driver. The smart charger’s live communication with the backend allows the EV driver to choose when and how to charge, making it possible to obtain greener and cheaper charging by delaying activation.
Yet smart charging’s benefits extend far beyond the driver. Because this technology helps to moderate overwhelming demand for electricity, it stabilises the load placed on the network and balances the flow of energy from it, so that the ratio of output from more renewable sources can be prioritised.
The far-reaching potential
Great inroads are currently being made in the terrain of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) solutions as well.
These technologies essentially frame the electric car as a battery on wheels, a sitting storage device for energy that can be tapped in moments when the grid is overtaxed and needs energy input, thereby balancing variations in energy production and consumption. Based in the idea that a car battery can be charged and discharged triggered by different signals, V2G technologies enable us to inject stored energy from an EV battery back into the grid as needed, to the benefit of all.
V2G, V2X, and smart Charging technologies in general, offer a shortcut to more sustainable energy consumption affecting society as a whole - this being especially clear with the exponential growth in the number of EVs in almost every market.
With the intelligently controlled distribution of energy, Smart Charging technologies ultimately have the power to revolutionise energy efficiency.