Dutch #ichargesmart charging app boosts share of renewable energy in battery; now available for Tesla home charging
26 January 2017
Jedlix, a subsidiary of Dutch renewable energy company Eneco, has made its smart charging app available to all home-charging Tesla drivers. A previously conducted test among 40 Tesla drivers demonstrated that the app increases the share of renewable energy in the battery and reduces costs. Jedlix’ mission is that, in time, all cars will run on renewable energy.
Jedlix #ichargesmart manages the charging of an electric car based on the balance between production and consumption of renewable energy. By selecting the optimal charging moments, Jedlix increases the share of renewables in the energy mix.
Our software creates a direct link between electric cars and the supply of renewable energy. This increases the sustainability of the charging process. Use of the app also reduces the costs of electric driving, because the app determines the lowest rate during the charging period. The results of a previously conducted test among 40 Tesla drivers show that savings on charging costs can be as high as 15%. The app also provides the possibility of smart home charging at no additional costs.
—Jorg van Heesbeen, manager Business Development at Jedlix
According to Van Heesbeen the sustainability aspect appeals to many Tesla drivers. The more than 6,000 Teslas in the Netherlands account for nearly half of the total number of fully electric cars in the country. With a combined peak capacity of around 60 MW, these cars have the potential to accelerate the integration of solar and wind power. Consequently, they also contribute to emission-free mobility. In the future, the service can also be used to prevent congestion on the low-voltage grid, should this become relevant.
The service is currently available for 1000+ compatible public charging stations and smart home charging for Tesla in the Netherlands.
Green energy at a discounted rate makes a lot of sense.
The Australian grid has a pricing structure where extra capacity, as for instance required when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow,pricing is open to bidding for supply. That might be fast ramp up gas hydro battery etc.
When that occurs, all the (other) suppliers receive that same elevated price as well.
It follows that in many cases the lowest cost will coincide with maximum renewable supply.It won't necessarily be true in every case but increasing renewable generation will automatically support the model.
We need these type of services and thinking.
Posted by: Arnold | 26 January 2017 at 06:19 PM
What you want is a transparent pricing mechanism where the retail price is a multiple (say 2x) of the wholesale price and is predicted (say) 3-24 hours ahead on an hourly basis.
Then, a smart charger could predict when to charge for lowest cost. This might be at night, or at midday (if there was a lot of solar on the grid) or if it was windy.
You would probably want to dither the start times so you did not have a load of stuff coming on at the same time. Perhaps a charger could request a start time from an approximate ideal time.
As long as you can program the charger by saying "I want X KwH by H hours", or I want P percent charged by H hours, it should be easy enough to implement.
Posted by: mahonj | 27 January 2017 at 10:07 AM