Zoomi Life

Engineers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington have a new smart charging device for electric cars they’re showing off.  The unit communicates wirelessly with the electric utility to get current rates and grid load.  It uses this information to slow down the charge or stop it altogether until a better situation is available.  This saves consumers money and the utility some extra load on their grid.

The idea is for the consumer, with the smart charger installed, to plug in their car for EV charging and leave it.  The charger than determines when the best time to take the heaviest load to fill up the car would be. The unit can be programmed for different levels and overridden entirely for “I need a charge now” situations.

EV owners could see savings of $150 per year, the team says. Of course, no projection on what the unit itself costs (installed), but the core concept is a good one and is already being used at some charging stations by Coulomb and others.

Source: AllCarsElectric