Green Charge Networks, a California-based provider of commercial energy storage, has announced a partnership with ChargePoint, a leading provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging networks.
The partners say that combining energy storage with EV charging eliminates the high cost of demand charges caused by spikes in power usage, often a barrier to installing EV charging stations. Demand charges are part of every commercial electricity bill and are determined by the highest 15 minutes of use during a billing cycle.
“Having EV charging readily available at public locations, especially along highly traveled corridors, will enable further electrification and accelerate adoption of electric vehicles,” says Vic Shao, CEO of Green Charge Networks. “The combination of energy storage with EV charging is important and necessary – especially in California, where demand charges are some of the highest in the nation.”
Redwood City, Calif., a city with more than 84,000 residents, is the first joint customer to install the combined solution. The expansion of the city's EV charging stations furthers the Redwood's environmental standards outlined in its Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the community and city operations by 15% below 2005 levels by 2020. The city installed five EV charging station locations in 2014.
Green Charge Networks says its intelligent energy storage is shaving multiple peaks per day (80 in May 2015) caused by the EV charging stations. The energy storage is expected to save nearly $7,000 annually in demand charges at the five Redwood City locations alone.
“By combining EV charging and energy storage to reduce consumption during peak hours, businesses can save money,” says Pasquale Romano, ChargePoint CEO. “This can significantly reduce the cost for a business to offer EV charging, thereby increasing EV adoption while promoting grid stability.”
For more information, visit www.greencharge.net/chargepoint.
