As charging demand continues to grow, many electric vehicle (EV) charging sites quickly reach grid capacity limits, making expansion complex and costly. E.ON Drive required a flexible energy management platform that allows charging infrastructure to scale across diverse sites while keeping both upfront investment costs and ongoing operational costs, such as grid fees, low.
At one site, dynamic load management with XENON enabled E.ON Drive to expand the charging capacity by a factor of eight without any grid extension. The platform automatically allocates power to vehicles, ensuring full utilization of available grid capacity without requiring additional infrastructure investment.
In addition to scaling infrastructure, E.ON Drive uses XENON’s time-of-use tariff optimization feature to align charging processes with favorable electricity price windows.
At sites where vehicles are parked for extended periods — such as workplace, fleet or destination charging locations — charging sessions start immediately when a car is plugged in, ensuring the session remains active. XENON then dynamically shifts as much energy as possible to favorable time frames, while always supplying each vehicle with the minimum charge power needed to keep the session alive. This approach ensures the required state of charge is reached by the planned departure time at the lowest possible energy cost, based on the day-ahead spot market prices
Thanks to this intelligent scheduling, overall energy costs were reduced by 25%. Charging operations also became more efficient, with charging speed increased by 40%, allowing the same infrastructure to serve more vehicles effectively.
In a recent project, E.ON Drive wanted to commission a charging site at a hardware store but the EV charging would compete with production processes for available power. E.ON Drive thus implemented virtual grid expansion – the intelligent integration of solar power and battery – with the energy management platform XENON to overcome this limited grid capacity.
XENON discharges battery storage only when total site consumption approaches the grid limit, virtually expanding available capacity. This enables uninterrupted operation of both production and charging infrastructure, avoiding more than €50,000 in potential grid upgrade costs.
With integrated support for photovoltaic systems, battery storage and intelligent charging algorithms, XENON provides E.ON Drive with a scalable and future-proof foundation.
The platform enables efficient infrastructure expansion, dynamic fleet charging and the integration of renewable energy — while minimizing energy costs and grid impact.
As electric vehicle adoption accelerates, grids face increasing pressure while electric vehicle (EV) owners look for simple ways to reduce charging costs and use the flexibility of their vehicles to support a stable energy system – without the need to invest in additional assets such as rooftop solar.
With Slim Laden (Smart Charging), essent helps its customers charge their electric vehicles intelligently at home. Customers who participate and keep their EV plugged in for at least six hours can benefit from our flexibility solution and earn up to €300 per year through bonuses or reduced electricity costs. All without changing their daily routine.
At the heart of the proposition is automated energy optimization. Charging processes are shifted to the most cost-efficient hours based on day-ahead electricity prices, ensuring that EVs are charged when electricity is cheapest and the energy system is under less strain.
To deliver this proposition at scale, essent relies on gridX’s advanced energy management system. The platform connects, monitors and controls electric vehicles via a cloud-to-cloud architecture, enabling seamless integration without additional hardware at the customer site.
SMART/LAB chose to work with gridX as they needed a solution that would enable them to constantly extend and improve their offering as the e-mobility landscape evolves and their customers’ needs change.
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