By Nick Carey and Anthony Deutsch

LONDON/UTRECHT (Reuters) – As the number of electric vehicles (EVs) increases, the major question facing power grid operators and charging companies, governments, and government officials is how to manage tens or millions of cars without crashing local networks, or investing billions in grid upgrades.

Smart charging is the answer.

Simply stated, smart charging software allows EV drivers to charge their vehicles during peak hours without the car drawing electricity until low-cost off-peak times. It reduces the strain on electric grids, uses renewable energy more effectively and helps drivers save money.

Without it, millions could be left without electric vehicles. EY audits Europe and estimates Europe to have 65 million electric cars by 2030, 130 million in 2035. These EVs will overload the local grids, causing blackouts.

“The transition to electric is almost impossible without smart chargers,” Chris Pateman Jones (CEO of British EV charging company Connected Kerb) said while demonstrating a project using public chargers in Hackney. Hackney is a London borough.

Connected Kerb’s app for smartphones allows you to set charging speeds, charges times, and the exact price at a slow, low “Eco” rate (roughly 19 pence or 26 U.S.cents per kilowatt).

Ged O’Sullivan (65-year-old pub proprietor) said that Connected Kerb made it much more affordable and easier to charge his plug-in hybrid.

It is difficult to find smart charging public chargers because there are so few available.

EY and Eurelectric report that Europe will require 9,000,000 public chargers in 2035, an increase of 374,000 from today.

In the near future, “bidirectional”, or vehicle-to-grid charging will be possible. This would allow millions of EV users to sell their EV battery juice back at peak times to grid operators.

According to Ofgem, Britain’s energy regulator many EV owners don’t know that smart charging at home exists even in Britain. Only a fraction of US utilities provide smart charging at home, according to Utilities Alliance.

Today, there are very few vehicles that can be considered as cars. Renault (PA:). Both the upcoming Hyundai Ioniq and Hyundai’s Ioniq models are capable of bidirectional charging. But, more options are on the horizon.

Robin Berg (CEO of We Drive Solar), stated that “most cars” do not support bidirectional charging. The company has already supplied hundreds of solar chargers in Utrecht for a pilot program and collaborated with Renault SA (OTC) and Hyundai Motor Co to make their cars. Other carmakers will soon follow.

In 2021, nearly 20% of the new cars sold in Britain and just 12% in Holland were electric.

Norway has been a pioneer in electrification. EVs accounted almost for three-quarters the sales volume of Oslo’s capital. This is thanks to the state subsidy. Some substations have been built locally in the 1950s. Smart charging Oslo is a costly and time-consuming upgrade that would require massive upgrades to the grid.

Sture Portvik (head of Oslo’s infrastructure charging efforts) stated, “To manage this we need intelligent charging solutions because it’s not worth over-investing in the grid.”

‘AWARENESS Is Low’

Connected Kerb plans to install 190,000 UK-based on-street chargers in 2030. It will be able to anticipate consumer charging patterns for grid operators, and provide lower rates when renewable energy is available.

He stated that wind farms were told by the government to stop producing too much electricity. Smart charging allows us to pull even more power.

While some UK energy providers offer off-peak rates to home smart charging, very few EV owners make use of these low rates.

Charlie Cook, Rightcharge’s CEO, stated that smart charging at home has become a common perception. Rightcharge is a UK company that assists EV owners to find lower tariffs. The reality is, however, that there is very little awareness of these tariffs.

Rightcharge claims smart charging will save drivers in the UK 10 billion Pounds ($13.5 Billion) by 2030.

British car dealership network Lookers leads EV buyers to Rightcharge to view their options.

Andrew Hall (Lookers’ Business Development Director) stated that the “early adopter” of EVs is “pretty smart about smart charging.

“But that’s changing as EV sales increase,” he said.

The Smart Electric Power Alliance, a Utilities Group estimates that only 50 of the 3,000 U.S. utilities provide smart charging.

ChargePoint offers U.S. charging stations that are capable of smart-charging, but the company wants to add more services.

Anthony Harrison (North American Head of Utility Partnerships at ChargePoint) said, “We get a lot more positive responses from customers when their utilities are offering those rates.”

Blink Charging Co (NASDAQ): Provides smart charging at a fixed rate.

Michael Farkas CEO at Blink said, “We chose to keep it simple and easy for our customers.”

‘HORRENDOUSLY EXPENSIVE’

It may prove crucial to use bidirectional charging.

Berg from We Drive Solar stated that bidirectional charging is a way to balance the grid. He estimates an EV fully charged can provide power for the average Dutch home for one week.

Serge Colle from EY, the global leader in energy resources, stated that smart and bidirectional chargers are more efficient than costly power grid upgrades.

Colle explained that “we can’t open up streets rapidly enough to add additional and reinforce the required reinforcement.”

Regulator Ofgem believes that by 2050, peak power reductions due to smart and bidirectional chargers could equal “10 Hinkley Point C Nuclear Plants”, a British two-reactor facility currently under construction.

There are currently more than 10 pilots for vehicle-to-grid in the United States, which use school buses.

California’s Nuvve Holding Corp, an auto-to-grid firm has created Levo with Stonepeak Private Equity. This joint venture will allow EV fleet owners the ability to sell electricity to utilities. Stonepeak contributed $750 million.

Gregory Poilasne CEO at Nuvve stated that “Because customers can generate revenue, it’s possible to lower the total cost ownership of those vehicles. At times this may be completely cost neutral.”

Bidirectional chargers are being developed by companies like Tritium Dcfc Ltd, Brisbane Australia.

Tritium’s CEO Jane Hunter announced that Tritium would launch in 2023 a bidirectional fast-charging wall unit to be used by homeowners as well as fleets.

Automakers have begun to embrace bidirectional charging. Ford Motor (NYSE) Co has partnered Sunrun (NASDAQ) Inc in order to provide power for homes using its F-150 Lightning pickup trucks.

Oslo, however, has spent extra money on pilot projects to test bidirectional chargers. This is because Oslo believes in this concept. It has disappointed, though, that so far not many carmakers have yet produced vehicles that are able to feed power back into grid.

Portvik, infrastructure chief, stated that the main obstacle to bidirectional charging was caused by car manufacturers. Portvik stated that the big carmakers need to take action.

($1 = 0.7387 pound)