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Let’s face it: today, almost every electric driver charges his or her car at the wrong time, in the wrong place. And that’s not just a minor inefficiency. No, that’s a fundamental mistake we continue to make as an industry. The inconvenient truth is that we are undermining our own energy transition.

Take a look at a weekday morning: we all arrive at the office, plug our cars in at the charging station … and immediately start charging. Bam. Full tank. Just when electricity demand peaks – between 7 and 9 a.m. – we all create even more load on the grid. No sun, Lots of peak consumption and thus the highest prices.

And then what do we do? Around 1 p.m., the battery is neatly full again. But then what is there? Sunshine, and lots of it too. Free energy from nature, but our battery is already done. Too early. Too stupid. At night? Same story. We get home, plug in our car, and recharge … while cooking. During the evening peak, the most expensive and taxing hours on the grid.

What we are doing is energetically madness

As an industry, we urgently need to get our feet on the ground. Smart charging is more than a marketing buzzword. It is not a “nice to have.” It’s an absolute must. And it starts with taking into account dynamic hourly rates, which perfectly predict when electricity is cheap and abundantly available as a function of renewable generation. Through supply and demand, the Day ahead market (BELPEX) is the perfect reflection of when to charge.

In Belgium, we are limping along behind. Other countries are already addressing this at the policy level. Therefore, my warm appeal to our regional and federal energy ministers – Mathieu Bihet (federal), Melissa Depraetere (Flemish), Cecile Neven (Walloon) – to take the lead here. Not tomorrow, but today. We no longer have time for pilot projects or policy papers that end up in a drawer. We need to make dynamic hourly electricity tariffs known among the population and communicate the benefits and savings we can get from this.

The fleet manager as gamechanger

For fleet managers, there is also a huge opportunity here. Why charge at 45 cents per kWh when you can do it at 25 cents or less? By smartly steering charging sessions based on solar, wind and grid load, savings can be as much as 30-40%. And that’s not marketing talk. That’s reality. If we add the Belpex prices of the last 3 months or 2135 hours we see during 342 hours a tariff below 0.02€/kWh and even 194 hours with negative prices on the wholesale market. due to solar production. Who would charge his car during those 342 hours at 11kWh does so completely for free in terms of energy component for 3,762kWh or 20,000km in 3 months. Those who can do the math understand the savings a fleet manager can make. Large energy companies are obviously not going to proactively communicate this to their consumers.

At STROOHM, because of our focus on the energy market, we have been working on this for years. We also completed a study on this with VLAIO and ELIA. But we go beyond presentations or visions. Also in practice: Our technology today already controls charging processes for home and office, fully attuned to dynamic tariffs, solar forecasting and consumption predictions. We do not wait for the industry to follow – we try to be the leader in the market.

A virtual powerhouse

But we must dare to go even further. Our fleet is not just a collection of batteries with wheels. It is a virtual power plant in the making. We can support FCR (Frequency Containment Reserve) and FRR (Frequency Restoration Reserve) with our electric car fleet. We have the reins to use our cars to balance the Elia grid, our high-voltage grid. This is how we help keep the grid stable during sudden fluctuations in supply or demand.

My dream as an entrepreneur? To reactivate our old 1930 coal-fired power plant – where we are based in Schelle – … but decentralized. Not by burning coal again, but by finding 250 megawatts of flexibility from electric cars throughout Belgium. Then we will turn our mobility into an asset for the energy system. Then we will bring stability, sustainability and economic efficiency together in one smart network.

The call

This is not a niche story. This is at the heart of our energy and mobility transition. It’s time for policymakers, businesses, fleet managers and technology companies like STROOHM to join forces.

Let’s stop charging at the wrong time and in the wrong place. Let’s finally load really smart, at the right time, at the right price, with an eye on the bigger picture.

– Bart Massin, CEO STROOHM