Maine is the latest US state to consider transitioning to time-of-use (TOU) electricity rates. This is when electricity is more expensive to consume for everyone during times of peak usage (when everyone is coming home from work and school), and cheap when there is little usage (in the middle of the night).
This can be hugely beneficial if you’re ready to take advantage of lower rates and can minimize your losses when energy costs are high. But if you don’t have the right tools, you could end up paying a hefty price. Especially as a fleet owner, marginal losses per vehicle can quickly become overwhelming.
As time-of-use rates become more mainstream, here are some ways Synop’s tech helps customers adapt, reduce losses, and even save money:
- Automated low-cost charging. Synop can optimize your charging schedules so that, when possible, your stationary fleet automatically starts charging during off-peak hours, and stops charging at peak times.
- Capping charge levels - This means your EVs can’t consume over a certain threshold of electricity during expensive peak hours.
- V2G technology - With Synop’s vehicle-to-grid technology, you can sell electricity from your vehicles back to the grid when the EVs are not in use, and can even make money from the cost differential.
Synop ran a V2G program in which a single electric school bus generated $23,500 in revenue across two summers.
- ‘Peak shaving’ with backup power sources - Synop can integrate your fleet charging stations with alternative power sources (like generators or solar panels) to reduce dependency on the grid when you need to charge during peak hours.
- Store cheap electricity - Synop can program your chargers to fill up external batteries when electricity is cheap, useful especially if your fleets often needs to be charged during peak hours
- Up-to-date info - Synop’s API integration gets the most up-to-date TOU rates and information, so you can adjust charging schedules immediately if the utility modifies peak times or other factors.
- Optimized routes - Synop helps fleet managers optimize their routes to get more efficiency out of their charge.
If you’d like to hear more about how Synop can easily save your fleet time and money on charging, get in touch: https://www.synop.ai/contact-us.
