An EV charging management system is software that lets you monitor and control the EV chargers on your site.
Depending on the system you choose, you can:
- Decide who can use them
- See whether individual chargers are available, charging or reporting a fault
- Set power limits for each charger or group of chargers
- Choose which vehicles get priority
In this article, find out what EV charging management systems can do, when they need to work alongside the rest of your site and when flexible charging may also earn income.
What can EV charging management software do?
From one dashboard, you can see what each charger is doing and change settings such as who can use it, how much power it can draw and which vehicles get priority.
What you can see and change depends on the chargers you have and the software package you choose.
| What you're managing | What the software shows you | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Charger status | Whether each charger is available, in use or reporting a fault | Stop a charging session or restart supported chargers remotely. You’ll still need to call out an engineer for some faults. |
| Who can charge | Which authorised users or access cards are using the chargers | Decide who can use the chargers and, if drivers pay to charge, what they pay |
| Charging power | How much power each charger is using and how much electricity it has supplied | Limit how much power chargers can use and give some charging sessions priority |
| Charging records | Charging sessions, electricity use and payments by charger, user or time period | Download reports for billing or to split charging costs internally |
How does EV charging load management work?
EV charging load management stops your chargers from using more power than you have available at your site. There are two approaches to this: static load management and dynamic load management:
- Static load management: Your installer gives all the chargers a fixed amount of power to share. If the rest of the site uses less electricity, the chargers do not automatically get more.
- Dynamic load management: The system checks how much power the rest of the site is using and changes the amount available to the chargers. It reduces charging when site demand rises and increases it when demand falls.
Power is measured in kilowatts (kW). In this example, the whole site can use up to 100kW at once. The connected cars could use up to 60kW between them, so how much power they actually get depends on how much the rest of the site is using.
| Power used by the rest of the site | Power left for EV charging | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 60kW | 40kW | The chargers can use up to 40kW between them |
| 80kW | 20kW | The system reduces charging to 20kW in total |
| 50kW | 50kW | The chargers can use up to 50kW if the vehicles can accept it |
Your installer also needs to check how much power the cables and electrical equipment supplying the chargers can safely handle. The load management system must stay within those limits as well as the overall limit for the site.
If there is too little power available for a charger to work properly, the system can pause charging until more power becomes available.
How do you decide which cars charge first?
If there isn’t enough power for every vehicle to charge as quickly as it could, you need rules on how to share what power is available. For example, staff cars parked all day might share it equally, while vehicles due to leave sooner could get priority.
These rules can become more important for EV fleet charging solutions, where vehicles may return and leave at different times and some need to be ready for the next shift.
To apply those rules, the software needs to know how much charge each vehicle needs and when it needs it by. One way to provide this information is for the driver to enter when they plan to leave or how much charge they need. This is useful on systems where the EV charging management system can’t read the vehicle’s battery percentage automatically.
Hotel EV charging can create a different pattern because overnight guests and shorter-stay visitors may need different amounts of charge by different times.
Giving a vehicle priority does not guarantee that it will use all the power available to it. The vehicle or charger may limit how fast it can charge. The system should therefore track how much electricity the vehicle is actually receiving so the driver can see whether they are likely to get the charge they need before leaving.
If there still isn’t enough power or time for a vehicle to get the charge it needs before leaving, the system should warn you.
You could then change that vehicle’s priority in the management dashboard. The software would recalculate how the available power is shared and, where the chargers support it, send them new limits. For example, it could give more power to the vehicle leaving soon and less to cars staying longer.
When do you need to manage EV charging with the rest of your site?
An EV charging management system may be enough if you only need to control the EV chargers. However, you may need wider control of the site if a battery, solar panels or other equipment like heat pumps or production machinery also affects how much power is available for charging.
How can a battery affect EV charging?
Let’s say your battery starts charging when several cars are plugged in. If your system only controls the EV chargers and cannot tell the battery to stop charging or supply power instead, its only option might be to reduce the power going to the cars.
Energy management software that also controls the battery has more choices. It could delay battery charging until the cars need less power, or use stored electricity from the battery to help supply them.
Using a battery to cover short periods when the chargers need more power than the site can take from the grid is known as battery buffered EV charging. Using a battery this way is also a form of peak shaving, where stored power covers short peaks so the site takes less from the grid.
How should electricity prices affect when vehicles charge?
EV charging management software should also take the electricity prices you actually pay into account when deciding when vehicles charge. For example, charging a car at 8pm instead of 5pm only saves money if electricity is cheaper at 8pm.
The software should be able to charge vehicles that are leaving soon first, while delaying others until a cheaper time if they will still be ready when needed. Ask the supplier to show you how electricity prices are built into that charging schedule.
Changing when chargers use power can also form part of demand response, where a site shifts electricity use to a different time. In Great Britain, negative electricity prices in the wholesale market can also affect the best time to charge if your tariff follows wholesale prices.
Can flexible EV charging earn income?
You may be able to earn money from the time your vehicles spend plugged in but not charging.
Let’s say a car will be parked at your site for eight hours but only needs four hours to get the charge its driver needs. You don’t have to charge it for those four hours as soon as it arrives. Your management system could slow or pause the charger for a while, then switch it back on later. As long as the car is ready on time, the driver won’t notice any difference.
In Great Britain, a specialist provider may be able to use this spare charging time to trade in wholesale electricity markets or take part in demand-flexibility services for you. This can work particularly well for fleets whose vehicles stay plugged in overnight.
Not every charger or site can take part. How much you could earn depends on your chargers, controls and meter, how long vehicles stay plugged in and which markets or services your site can use.
Ask the provider to show you which charging it could pause, how it would make sure every vehicle was ready for its driver and how it would work out your payment.
How should solar power affect EV charging?
Solar power should also affect when vehicles charge. If your panels are producing plenty of electricity while cars are on site, the software can give those cars more power during these times, reducing how much electricity you need to buy from the grid later.
If you would otherwise sell that solar electricity back to the grid, compare how much you save by using it for EV charging against the export payment you would lose. Ask the supplier to show you how the system decides when to use solar for charging and what happens if solar output drops during the day.
Which system should control what?
Before choosing a system, be clear about what each piece of software will control. Your EV charging software might decide how power is shared between the cars, while a wider site controller decides how much power is available for EV charging in the first place.
If you already use a building energy management system, ask how the two systems will work together. You don’t want EV charging controls to interfere with heating, cooling or other equipment the building needs to keep running.
What should you ask a supplier to demonstrate?
Before choosing an EV charger management system, check the following:
Will it work with your chargers?
Ask the supplier to confirm in writing that each charger model will work with the system and that it will give you the control you need.
If they say the chargers are “OCPP compatible”, ask them to be more specific. OCPP is the standard many chargers use to communicate with management software, but there are different versions and not every charger supports every function. You may also hear this type of software called a charge point management system, or CPMS.
Ask them to confirm whether you will be able to:
- Limit how much power each charger, or group of chargers, can use
- Give more of the available power to vehicles that need to leave sooner
- Allow or block particular drivers or access cards from charging
- See whether each charger is available, charging or reporting a fault
- See how much electricity each charger or user has used and download those records
Also ask whether anything in your existing charger setup or contract could stop those functions working.
What happens when things change or go wrong?
Ask the supplier to show you what happens when:
- The rest of the site suddenly needs more power: The chargers should automatically use less so the site as a whole stays within its power limit.
- A vehicle that needs to leave soon plugs in: The system should be able to give that vehicle more of the available charging power and reduce the power going to other vehicles when needed.
- The internet connection or site meter stops working: Find out whether the chargers keep charging the vehicles, what power limit they use while the problem lasts, and how normal charging starts again.
Also find out what happens when a charger develops a fault, including who receives the fault alert, who tries to fix it remotely and who sends an engineer if someone needs to visit the site.
What will the reports show?
Ask to see a real example of the reports you will receive. They should make it easy to see how much electricity each charger or user has used, when they charged and, if drivers pay to charge, how much they paid.
Ask whether you can download the information and how long you can keep or access older records.
What will the system cost?
Give each supplier the same number of chargers, sites and functions when asking for a price. Otherwise, you may be comparing different services.
Ask them to show the full cost, including setup, any extra meters or controllers, the software subscription, internet connection and payment fees.
Also establish which charges your business pays and which are passed on to drivers.
See how GridVolt Energy Manager coordinates your site
GridVolt’s Energy Manager software controls compatible EV chargers alongside your battery, solar panels and other site equipment. It uses your electricity use, solar forecast and tariff to decide when each should use or supply power, then works out a new plan every 15 minutes.
This gives you more options when things get busy. It could delay battery charging, use stored battery power to help charge vehicles or give the chargers more power when more solar electricity is available.
Where vehicles have spare charging time, GridVolt can also help assess whether eligible charging could earn income from wholesale or demand flexibility markets in Great Britain. The charge each vehicle needs before it leaves still comes first.
If you already use EV charger management software, you may not need to replace it. Give GridVolt details of your chargers, battery, inverter and existing software. We can check what Energy Manager can connect to and explain which system would control each job.
Fill in the form on the right, or contact GridVolt to talk through your site.
FAQs
Can one system manage chargers at several sites?
Yes. Some systems let you manage chargers at several locations from one account. Each site still needs its own power limits and charging settings. Extra power available at one site cannot be used by chargers at another.
Can you change software without replacing the chargers?
Sometimes. The new software needs to work with your existing chargers, and your current contract must allow you to switch. Before changing, ask both providers what needs to be changed on the chargers and which records can be moved to the new system. Driver accounts, charging history, billing records and prices may not transfer automatically.