World EV Day is an opportunity to celebrate how far electric transport has come. But for businesses considering the transition to electric vehicles, the conversation needs to go further than the vehicle itself.
Electrification changes the way an organisation uses energy.
Every electric car, van or HGV that arrives on site introduces additional electrical demand. When vehicles need to charge, how much energy they require, how long they remain on site and what other demands are being placed on the building at the same time all begin to matter.
That is why we believe EV infrastructure should rarely be considered in isolation.
Looking at the whole energy ecosystem
The real opportunity comes from understanding how EV charging can work alongside the rest of an organisation’s energy infrastructure.
Solar generation can provide electricity on site. Battery storage can capture energy for use when it delivers greater value. Smart charging can control when vehicles draw power, while monitoring provides the data needed to understand how all of those elements are interacting in practice.
Increasingly, smart energy tariffs add another dimension. Where electricity prices vary throughout the day, battery storage and flexible EV charging can allow businesses to take advantage of lower-cost periods. Energy can be purchased and stored when prices are lower, then used when grid electricity becomes more expensive, creating opportunities for energy arbitrage alongside the savings generated through on-site renewables.
Together, solar, storage, EV charging, smart tariffs and monitoring create an energy ecosystem that can respond far more intelligently to how and when a business needs power.
At Insight Energy, this is increasingly what we are seeing across the projects we deliver. Our approach is built around understanding consumption, generation, tariffs and operational behaviour so the different elements can be designed to work together, rather than treating each technology as a separate investment.
Different organisations, different levels of electrification
We have recently completed a project with Chassis Cab Cambridge that demonstrates what a more complete energy ecosystem incorporating EV infrastructure can look like. We will be sharing the full case study shortly, looking at the thinking behind the project and how the different elements work together.
At Lombard Shipping, the introduction of electric trucks brings the same conversation into a different operational environment. Electrifying larger commercial vehicles can create significant new energy requirements, making the relationship between transport, charging infrastructure and the wider energy strategy increasingly important.
But this thinking is not limited to large fleets or complex commercial sites.
Projects with organisations such as Thetford Garden Centre and Hope Learning Trust demonstrate how EV charging can form part of the wider renewable energy picture at a smaller scale too.
The technology and level of demand may differ considerably between a garden centre, an education trust and a business operating electric HGVs, but the principle remains the same: understand how energy is being used before deciding how the infrastructure should be designed.
Planning for the demand that comes next
For organisations beginning to think about fleet electrification, one of the most valuable things they can do is consider the energy implications early.
What does your current consumption profile look like? How much additional demand could EVs introduce? When will vehicles actually be available to charge? Could some of that demand be met through on-site generation? Would battery storage create additional flexibility? Could smart tariffs change when it makes commercial sense to buy, store or use electricity? And how might your requirements change if the fleet continues to grow?
These are energy strategy questions as much as they are transport questions.
Our work spans monitoring, technical design, financial modelling, solar PV, battery storage and EV charging because increasingly these technologies cannot be considered independently. The objective is to understand how they can work together to reduce costs, improve resilience and support an organisation’s longer-term plans.
This World EV Day, the growth of electric transport is certainly something worth recognising.
But for businesses, perhaps the more interesting opportunity is not simply changing what powers the vehicle. It is thinking more intelligently about the energy system that will power it as a whole.
If EVs are part of your organisation’s plans, talk to us and we can help you explore how EV charging, solar, battery storage and smarter energy management could work together to support them.