The impact of smart charging on energy tariffs & your electricity bill

Welcome to part three of our blog series following our webinar with Stekker! Now that we've covered the key takeaways and your top questions it's time to dive deeper into a topic on everyone's mind: cost. What is the real impact of smart charging on your energy bill?

The price you pay to charge your electric car is directly tied to the price of electricity at the time of charging. Smart charging is designed to intelligently control this process, enabling you to achieve significant savings. Let's explore exactly how it works.

Dynamic pricing & solar power: charging when It's cheapest

The most significant savings come directly from choosing the right time to charge.

• Dynamic energy contracts: On a dynamic contract, your electricity price fluctuates hourly. As expert Erik de Bruin from Stekker explained in our webinar, the smart charging system actively seeks out the hours with the lowest (and sometimes even negative) prices to schedule your charging session.

• Your own solar power: If you have solar panels, the cheapest electricity is the power you generate yourself. The system will prioritise charging your car with this free solar power, which maximises your self-consumption and minimises your reliance on expensive energy from the grid.

The hidden savings: reducing your monthly peak load

Beyond the price you pay per kWh, there's another significant and often overlooked cost: the capacity fee. Your grid operator bases this fee on the highest peak of electricity usage you register in a month. When you arrive home and plug in your car, cook dinner, and run the washing machine all at once, you create a high peak, leading to higher fixed costs on your bill.

Smart charging helps prevent this. By automatically shifting your car's charging session to a quieter time (like overnight), your monthly peak load is reduced. As Erik mentioned in the webinar, every kilowatt you "shave" off your peak can save you several euros each month. It's a smart, automatic saving you don't even have to think about.

Additional revenue: renewable fuel units (HBEs)

Another significant financial incentive comes from renewable fuel units (known as HBEs in the Netherlands). If you can demonstrate that the electricity used for charging is from a renewable source (such as your own solar panels), you are eligible to generate these certificates.

These certificates have market value and can become an extra revenue stream. A smart charging system assists in gathering the required data to prove "simultaneous generation and consumption," a key criterion for claiming this credit.

More than just a cheaper price per kWh

Smart charging has a direct and positive impact on your energy bill, but it's about more than just chasing the lowest price per kWh. By intelligently managing dynamic tariffs, maximising your self-generated solar power, and reducing your peak consumption, you can achieve structural savings. It's a smart investment that benefits not only your wallet but also the stability of the entire energy grid.

Continue following us here! In our next blog post, we'll take a deeper dive into how smart charging contributes to a greener, more sustainable EV ecosystem.

Missed the webinar? You can watch the full recording here. (Please be aware that original audio is in Dutch. Turn captions on to enjoy in English)