A charger supplier asks how many charge points you want. The grid operator asks how much capacity you need. A subsidy body may ask for a capacity calculation. And your board asks what it costs. A charging plan answers all of these. This is how to approach it.
Step 1: get your quarter-hourly data
Your grid connection is metered per quarter hour. Ask your metering company or energy supplier for the quarter-hourly values of the past year, usually as an Excel or csv file. They show when your building uses a lot of power and when there is room.
Do you have solar panels? Then also get the generation data from your inverter or your installer's portal. The grid meter only shows what you export, not what you use yourself.
Step 2: list your contract and connection
- Your contracted capacity (import, in kW) and your grid operator. It is on your invoice or in the contract.
- The size of your connection, for example 3 × 250 A or a medium-voltage connection.
- Your energy contract: fixed price, day and night rate, or dynamic.
Step 3: export your trips
Export a few representative weeks from your planning system or TMS: per vehicle, departure and arrival time and kilometres. That shows when each truck is at the depot and how much energy it needs. Use your own consumption figures per type of trip and per season, not the brochure range.
Step 4: choose the scenarios
Don't calculate one solution, but a few side by side. For example:
- Charging with load balancing within your current contract.
- The same, with extra solar panels.
- With a battery and an energy management system (EMS).
- With a battery and extra solar.
For each scenario, you want to know: does charging fit in every quarter hour of the year, how much charging shortfall is there, how many trucks can still be added, and which contract you need if it doesn't fit.
Step 5: calculate the costs
List the annual costs of each scenario: power, grid charges (including your highest quarter hour, see One quarter hour sets your grid costs), depreciation of chargers, battery and panels, and fast charging on the road. Subtract revenue from charging credits where they exist (see Dutch ERE credits: what does depot charging earn?) and any subsidy. Compare it with the same trips on diesel.
What you can do with it
With a charging plan, you know:
- how many chargers you need, and at what power;
- whether your contract is enough, or how many kW you should request;
- whether a battery pays for itself;
- what you can substantiate in a subsidy application and in your talks with the grid operator.
Prefer to have it calculated?
That is exactly what FleetPlanning's Charging Scan does. You submit your metering data and trips through a secure form, I calculate the four scenarios per quarter hour over a full year, and we discuss the outcome in the Energy conversation. A Cost conversation about what it costs and delivers can follow.
Also read How many electric trucks fit on your grid connection? and Grid congestion at your depot: what can you do?