AutoGrid, a leading provider of AI-powered flexibility management software for the energy industry, announced technological compatibility with the FLO and AddEnergie group, a leading operator of the FLO electric vehicle (EV) charging network and provider of smart charging software and equipment, to provide AutoGrid Flex for utility management of smart charging endpoints.

AutoGrid’s suite of flexibility management applications allows utilities, electricity retailers, renewable energy project developers and energy service providers to deliver clean, affordable and reliable energy by managing networked distributed energy resources (DERs) in real time, at scale through different value streams. AutoGrid’s flagship application, AutoGrid Flex, is ranked as the #1 Virtual Power Plant Platform worldwide according to a global ranking published in 2020 by research and analysis firm Guidehouse (formerly, Navigant Research).

Transportation electrification is steadily accelerating as EVs are projected to account for 28% of global new car sales by 2030 and 58% by 2040. More utilities are recognizing and acting on the necessity of including EV charger data within the calculus of real-time load management and leveraging AI-enabled tools to enhance grid flexibility while enabling the influx of EVs onto the grid.

The collaboration elevates utilities’ capacity for the continuous measurement, monitoring and control of EV charging at scale. With AutoGrid Flex’s AI-based analytics and real-time operating data in place, utilities can obtain endpoint-level and network-wide visibility and intelligence on participating AddEnergie-manufactured smart charging stations deployed on the FLO network within their service territories.

This provides the ability to manage loads for peak demand shaving, enhance the stability of EV charging loads, and improve grid reliability according to the overall impact of charging network activity.

AutoGrid Flex is being actively used for management of AddEnergie-operated residential EV charging infrastructure installed within a major West Coast utility’s service territory. The best practices and lessons derived from the work with this utility and other organizations in North America are being applied to a wider range of residential and commercial fleet use cases.

With the number of EVs on the road expected to skyrocket over the coming decades, management of vehicle charging is an imperative new area of Smart Grid proficiency for utilities at the distribution level. In AutoGrid we’ve found a company with a deep understanding of what is required to integrate and leverage real-time edge intel gathered from smart FLO EV chargers. This datastream will empower utility operations to achieve greater reliability, visibility and operability of these dynamic endpoints which elevates both uptime and customer experience.

—Frank Fata, Global Head, Utilities at FLO | AddEnergie

This work with FLO | AddEnergie, an established player in EV charging, speaks to an increasingly important aspect of our mission to create a more flexible, responsive electrical grid. Vehicle electrification will exert more influence on the overall shape of energy demand year after year. We are strengthening the foundation for successful management of these changes through these new ties to FLO | AddEnergie.

—Paul Schinke, senior manager of customer success at AutoGrid

Earlier in January, AutoGrid was awarded $2.25 million in funding from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The funding will be used to increase significantly the scalability and electric vehicle (EV) management capabilities of the Flex Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform.

The expanded Flex capabilities include scaling real-time co-optimization up to 100,000 assets, and expanding the platform’s features and functionality for EV fleet management. AutoGrid is currently supporting the buildout of the world’s largest VPP by asset volume in Japan with local partner ENERES, and offers its Flex platform for EV fleet owners and power providers to manage networks of charging stations.

AutoGrid received this competitive award from ARPA-E’s Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) program, building on ARPA-E’s primary focus of supporting the scaling of transformational and disruptive technologies across the full spectrum of energy applications. This is the second time AutoGrid has received ARPA-E support, having previously been awarded $3.5 million by the office’s Green Electricity Network Integration (GENI) program in 2012.

With more than 5,000 MW of assets under contract, and experience of managing distributed energy resources (DERs) in 12 countries, AutoGrid is the leading provider of flexibility management solutions globally.

AddEnergie is a North American charging network operator for electric vehicles and a major provider of smart charging software and equipment. Every month, AddEnergie charging stations and its FLO network enable approximately half a million charging events and the transfer of 5.5 GWh in electricity, through more than 35,000 stations deployed on public networks, commercial and residential installations.

AddEnergie’s headquarters and network operations center are based in Québec City, and its assembly plant is located in Shawinigan (Québec). The company also has an office in Montreal and regional teams located in Ontario, British Columbia, California, New York and Florida.