How managed EV charging reduces energy suppliers’ imbalance costs and profile risk

Rising electric car adoption makes energy demand unpredictable and an energy supplier’s customer portfolio harder to manage profitably. Especially, if a supplier has a majority of electric car drivers on fixed-price contracts, the hedge risk increases.

Since fixed-price contracts are sold at a fixed rate for a set time, electric car drivers do not have incentives to charge during grid-friendly hours, causing utilities to lose money per customer contract when they charge during more expensive hours.

In this article, we will explore the opportunity of managed EV charging and its role in helping reduce profile risk. We also cover how EV charging - from both fixed and dynamic tariffs can help suppliers manage their imbalance costs - a theme extremely topical for all suppliers across Europe.

What is managed EV charging?

Managed EV charging are opt-in programs or integrated services that incentivise consumers on fixed-price contracts to charge during the night. By enrolling consumers in these programs or services, energy suppliers can reduce the profile risk of these customers and create savings for them. Additionally, having more visibility and predictability to when will your customers will charge, the supplier can forecast their needs better leading to more accurate procurement of energy. The more accurate it is - the less they have imbalance risk, which means either surplus or deficiency of energy, which they would need to then either sell or purchase from the imbalance market.

Managed EV charging works by incentivising consumers to enroll with an upfront reward while providing continuous rewards for using it. Once a customer connects their car to the program or platform, like the Synergi app (without additional smart meters or hardware), every time they need to charge, the app creates a charging schedule considering grid-friendly hours.

What is the financial impact of EV charging?

Synergi’s managed EV charging program cuts profile cost and delivers 30% savings on fixed-price EV contracts for utilities (from 0.35€ to 0.25€ per kWh cost). Moreover, for an average EV driver charging 3,600 kWh at home annually, suppliers can achieve 380€ in yearly savings per EV driver.

The image below shows an example of one of our pilots, where we tested managed EV charging with a European energy supplier. With this pilot Synergi managed to improve gross margin by 28%-points (-1% → 27%).

At the same time, the pilot reached 100% satisfaction rate amongst this user group, who said they would recommend managed EV charging to their friends & family.

What are the benefits of managed EV charging for end-users?

For consumers, the benefits are rewards. Once a customer signs up for a managed charging program, they receive a one-off enrolment reward, and then they are continuously rewarded by sharing a proportion of the savings generated to keep it lucrative for them.

Providing rewards is a great opportunity to include users with fixed-price contracts in efforts that create better impact for our energy system. And in fact, they are ready to participate. Synergi’s previous user research shows that a majority of EV drivers would participate in demand response programs if rewards are offered.

How to get started with managed EV charging?

There are two options: build the offering in-house or reach out to a residential aggregation platform like Synergi.

Synergi is your flexibility partner, that means we provide a ready to launch solution— from user acquisition to rewards, no tech setup needed. Our demand response programs are the fastest and easiest way for energy companies to create value from household flexibility — and to offer these benefits to households as well.

Why work with Synergi?

• Household flex specialists: Deep expertise in residential energy flexibility
• Scale without risk : Our proven model eliminates the complexity and cost of building in-house‍
• Device compatibility: Over 400+ home devices supported‍
• Simple user experience: User-friendly app built for maximum savings‍
• Proven performance: 10,000+ users across 10+ countries‍
• Market-ready: Active connections in Nordic flexibility markets‍
• Hands-on support: We manage onboarding, marketing, and ongoing adoption

Contact us below!