Peak Demand Metering

[ev-now]

I did not find this discussed, please direct me to threads if it's already done. I have the option of how to pay for my residential electricity, one option is based on Peak Demand (just like our office commercial supply). With electric kitchen and dryer, demand is already reasonably high - add a MS and not manage them and this might be a bad idea.

However, if I could manage the car, to ensure it was smart enough not to try to charge when demand was already X, or was only allowed to charge at a rate which would make a total demand of Y - it might work well.

There are various tools which would allow me to measure demand and consumption, question is - can MS be externally driven to either stop charging until it gets another signal or even better drop it's demand to a specific level?

 

[thimel]

I did not find this discussed, please direct me to threads if it's already done. I have the option of how to pay for my residential electricity, one option is based on Peak Demand (just like our office commercial supply). With electric kitchen and dryer, demand is already reasonably high - add a MS and not manage them and this might be a bad idea.

However, if I could manage the car, to ensure it was smart enough not to try to charge when demand was already X, or was only allowed to charge at a rate which would make a total demand of Y - it might work well.

There are various tools which would allow me to measure demand and consumption, question is - can MS be externally driven to either stop charging until it gets another signal or even better drop it's demand to a specific level?

With the phone app you can start and stop charging. The REST API that app uses has been reverse engineered. So you can make a computer start and stop charging your car according to your criteria if you have the software expertise.

 

[brkaus]

I believe the JuiceBox charger can control the charging rate remotely. Not sure if they have an API.

OpenEVSE also has ability to set the charge level and definitely can be integrated into a bigger solution - as long as one has the technical expertise.

 

[sdorn]

My electric company just switched over to a peak demand system as well, but they only measure peak demand on pre-announced days during the summer between 2pm and 7pm so I will just have to make sure I never charge at those times. I have started the habit of always delaying the charge on my Leaf until late at night using the timer on my EVSE. I will continue that habit when the MS comes.

 

[animorph]

No time of day component to the peak demand measurement? My power is roughly 1/2 price after 7pm until 12pm the next day. My peak demand is only measured between 12pm and 7pm. So all I have to control is when the car charges, which it can do by itself fairly well.

 

[Gig103]

The car is able to be instructed to start charging at a specific time. Aside from that you can turn charging on and off from the phone app.