Why should energy companies offer Smart Charging to their customers?

The customer has a recurring task

A customer who wants to charge their car when the electricity price is lower can check the price, calculate how long the car needs to charge and set a start time in the car or charger. This can be done manually, but the customer has to reassess whenever the car returns with a different state of charge, is needed at a different time or electricity prices change.

A price graph helps the customer see when electricity costs more or less, but it does not decide when charging should begin. The customer still has to weigh the price against how much the car needs to charge and when it must be ready to drive, so the same task returns every time the circumstances change.

With Smart Charging, the customer describes what they need instead of calculating the start time themselves. The customer states when the car should be ready and how much it needs to charge, and Power Flow uses the available time and the electricity price to create the charging plan. The customer can follow the plan in Power App, change the ready time or start charging immediately if they need the car sooner.

It is not possible to say in advance how much the customer will save, because the result depends on the electricity price, the car’s charging needs and how the customer would otherwise have charged. The service helps the customer use lower-priced hours when there is time to do so, while the customer decides when the car should be ready.

Why Smart Charging is relevant to the energy company

The energy company already shows the electricity price and the customer’s energy information in its app. With Smart Charging, the energy company can also use the price to help the customer plan a part of their electricity use that can often be moved between different hours.

The customer connects a supported car or charger and manages charging in Power App, where their contract, prices, consumption and invoices are already in one place. The customer uses Smart Charging under the energy company’s name and visual identity, without leaving the energy company’s app for a separate charging app from another provider.

For the person responsible for the energy company’s offering, this means the app can do more than display information. The energy company can help the customer with a recurring task whenever the car is plugged in, while the customer gets a clear connection between the electricity price and the time when the car needs to be ready to drive.

We take care of the technology behind the service

The energy company does not need to build the connections to cars and chargers or develop the logic that creates the charging plan. In Power Flow, we have built the process where the customer connects a supported car or charger, states their charging needs and follows the charging in Power App.

We develop and manage Smart Charging and the technical connections, while the energy company decides how the service should be packaged and offered to customers. When a customer needs help, the energy company’s customer service team can see connected devices and the customer’s settings in Dashboard, handle the initial question and pass the case to us if the problem requires technical troubleshooting.

The energy company therefore continues to meet the customer in its own app and through its customer service team, while we manage the technology that plans and controls the charging.