Ford Pro (the division of the automaker that serves fleet customers) and Atlanta-based utility Southern Company have completed a six-month pilot program to test managed charging for fleet EV operations and evaluate its impact on the electric grid.
The pilot demonstrated how Southern can shift charging for its fleet to lower-cost time periods and respond to grid signals, while maintaining operational readiness. The utility will use information from the pilot to help develop a framework to assist commercial customers with electrification at scale.
The pilot involved 200 of Southern’s Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks and 150 Level 2 Ford Pro Chargers. Ford Pro Intelligence monitored and analyzed data from vehicles and chargers, giving the company visibility into charging patterns and energy use.
A demand response test was executed on three occasions at different times of the day and for varying lengths of time throughout the pilot. Southern Company was able to reduce total power demand by 500 kW during a 30-minute demand response event, averaging roughly 10 kW of savings per charger.
“Ford Pro’s energy management algorithm was able to throttle chargers to avoid windows of peak grid demand, shifting charging within the drivers’ existing charging window while still ensuring that drivers got the energy they expected out of a charging session,” explained Tom Canada, Fleet Electrification Project Manager at Southern subsidiary Georgia Power. “The insights gleaned from this pilot can be applied to help us manage our electric vehicle fleets more efficiently and help us advise customers who may approach our electric utilities for advice about managed charging for their fleets.”
Source: Ford
