New Study Finds Active Managed EV Charging Can Double the Grid’s EV Hosting Capacity

EnergyHub, a provider of grid-edge flexibility solutions, and The Brattle Group have released findings from a study using real-world electric vehicle data drawn from an EnergyHub-managed charging program in Washington State. The analysis quantifies how active managed charging improves grid reliability while delivering meaningful cost savings for utilities.

As EV adoption keeps growing fast, utilities face growing pressure to accommodate new load on an aging distribution grid. The Brattle Group’s evaluation demonstrates that advanced, actively optimized EV charging can significantly mitigate these impacts by reducing localized grid stress and lowering wholesale market costs, without compromising customer charging outcomes.

Detailed in the report Demonstrating the Full Value of Managed EV Charging, the study compared two active managed charging strategies tested in a live utility program with unmanaged charging and passive time-of-use rate structures. The results show that active managed charging can cut EV charging peaks by as much as 50 percent by smoothing load at the service transformer and feeder levels, easing distribution congestion. It can also roughly double distribution system hosting capacity, allowing utilities to support about twice as many EVs before grid upgrades are required.

In addition, the analysis found that active management can defer primary and secondary distribution system investments by up to 10 years, significantly delaying capital-intensive infrastructure upgrades. Approximately 95 percent of charging was shifted to off-peak periods, even under complex time-of-use schedules, helping reduce customer charging costs. On a system-wide basis, the strategies delivered savings of up to $400 per EV per year, with potential for even greater value in more constrained grid areas.

Critically, customer needs were fully met. Every EV that remained plugged in with sufficient time to charge reached its target state of charge, while participants overrode automated charging an average of just 2.3 times per month. The study also showed that unmanaged charging or passive TOU rates can overload distribution transformers with only one or two EVs, whereas active managed charging enables the same assets to reliably support up to five vehicles.

Energyhub Supports a Cleaner, More Reliable Electric Grid

EnergyHub is a U.S.-based software and services company that enables utilities to unlock flexibility from distributed energy resources to support a cleaner, more reliable electric grid. The company provides a grid-edge distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) that aggregates, monitors, and orchestrates resources such as electric vehicles, smart thermostats, home batteries, solar inverters, and other connected devices at scale.

Utilities use EnergyHub’s platform to manage load growth, improve grid reliability, and deploy virtual power plants by coordinating customer-side assets in real time. A core focus of the company’s work is managed EV charging, where advanced optimization and automation help reduce peak demand, ease stress on distribution infrastructure, and lower system costs while ensuring drivers’ charging needs are met.

EnergyHub works with more than 120 utilities across North America, managing millions of devices and significant flexible capacity. Its solutions help utilities defer infrastructure upgrades, reduce wholesale energy costs, and integrate increasing levels of electrification and renewable energy into grid operations.

EnergyHub is a subsidiary of Alarm.com and operates at the intersection of clean energy, digital infrastructure, and grid modernization, with the goal of accelerating the transition to a more distributed, resilient, and decarbonized energy system.

EVinfo.net’s Take: BluWave-ai’s EV Everywhere is a Game Changer

BluWave-ai’s EV Everywhere is a game-changing artificial intelligence driven platform designed to help utilities, grid operators, and EV owners manage growing electric vehicle charging demand while maintaining grid reliability and avoiding unnecessary infrastructure upgrades. Delivered as a software as a service solution, the platform uses advanced AI to predict, optimize, and actively manage EV charging in real time.

At its core, EV Everywhere analyzes real time and forecast data, including system load, renewable generation, and local grid constraints, to intelligently schedule EV charging and coordinate distributed energy resources. By smoothing demand and reducing local peaks, the platform helps utilities mitigate transformer and feeder overloads and deploy EV charging as a non wires alternative to traditional grid investments.

The platform also includes a consumer facing mobile application that allows EV drivers to connect their vehicles and chargers, receive guidance on optimal charging times, and participate in utility incentive or demand response programs. Features such as performance scoring and rewards are designed to encourage charging behavior that benefits both the customer and the grid.

Beyond managed charging, EV Everywhere functions as a distributed energy resource management layer, enabling coordination between EVs, battery storage, and renewable energy assets. Utility operators gain access to dashboards that provide visibility into real time load, peak forecasts, and optimization outcomes, supporting both operational decision making and long term planning.

BluWave-ai has further expanded the platform with its Infrastructure Cube, a cloud based system that connects EV users, utilities, and system operators to dynamically balance demand across networks and better utilize surplus renewable energy. Together, these capabilities position EV Everywhere as a scalable solution for integrating EVs into modern, flexible, and resilient electric grids.