What is price-optimized EV charging
With price-optimized EV charging, the neoom Ai energy management takes advantage of fluctuations on the electricity market (based on a variable electricity tariff that you have signed with a provider) to charge the car when electricity is cheap. Of course, your preferences such as the planned departure time and the desired charge amount are taken into account.
What role does neoom Ai play
To use the function, you must configure a variable electricity tariff in the neoom App. Once this is done, you can select the charging strategy "Intelligent" ("Intelligent") on the charging station detail page in the app and then set the desired departure time and charge amount. Once this is done, the charging management of neoom Ai takes over. neoom Ai is available from the Mega pricing plan for users of neoom energy management. In doing so, neoom Ai takes into account dynamic electricity tariffs as well as weather forecasts and the individual electricity consumption and generation of a site. The intelligent energy management system also learns from the past and checks how accurate the corresponding forecasts were in order to optimize for the future.
How can the function be activated?
Step 1: Before you can use the functions of neoom Ai, you must enter your electricity tariff information via the neoom App:
Step 2:
The functions of neoom Ai are available exclusively with the Mega pricing plan. Make sure that you are a user of such a plan.
Note:
More information with an extensive FAQ (frequently asked questions) page is available here: https://neoom.com/produkte/app/griid
In addition, all information on "Price-optimized charging of the battery from the grid at dynamic tariffs" can be found here.
Prerequisite for use:
The end customer needs:
- A charging station that can be controlled by neoom Ai. See the device list Please note for the device list that the charging station must be controllable by neoom Ai; a charging station where neoom Ai can only read the values is not sufficient for this.
- A BEAAM that is online
- Energy management must be activated in neoom Ai: connect.neoom.com --> Devices ("Geräte") --> Configure site ("Standort konfigurieren") --> Energy management ("Energiemanagement")
- To use a variable electricity tariff: for Germany: an Intelligent Metering System (IMSys) (Intelligentes Messsystem) for Austria: a Smart Meter
- a dynamic electricity tariff (a dynamic draw tariff is mandatory / for the feed-in tariff the customer can choose between dynamic or fixed)
- neoom Ai Mega or Giga pricing plan
How can the function be operated?
Step 1:
For the calculation of the charging duration and the charged range, we need some information about the electric vehicle.
On the detail page for the charging station (can be opened in the neoom App by tapping the charging station under Consumers ("Verbraucher") in the neoom Ai overview), the corresponding car data can be entered with a click on the button.
The captured data can be edited at any time in the profile under "Electric cars" ("Elektroautos"), or another vehicle can be added.
Step 2:
On the detail page for the charging station, a total of three different charging strategies can be selected:
Solar ("Solar") - Here the electric vehicle is charged only with PV surplus. Thanks to the surplus prioritization of neoom Ai, you can decide which consumer should be supplied with PV electricity first and where charging the electric vehicle ranks in that order.
Fast ("Schnell") - The electric vehicle is charged at the highest possible power.
Intelligent - This charging strategy based on neoom Ai is available through the activation of neoom Ai and the prerequisites already mentioned above. With this option, the electric vehicle is always charged in the most cost-efficient way.
After clicking the desired charging strategy, the electric vehicle is charged accordingly.
The charging process can also be paused by clicking the "Pause charging" ("Laden pausieren") button and started again by clicking again.
What does the charging strategy "Intelligent" do in detail?
neoom Ai decides, taking into account the site-specific PV production forecast, the consumption forecast of your household or site, and the current electricity prices on the market, when it is cheapest to charge the electric vehicle from the grid in addition to PV surplus (if a PV system is present).
The self-learning system continuously adapts to your usage behaviour as well as the market dynamics of electricity prices. Thus, in addition to dynamic electricity prices, weather forecasts for the site, your electricity consumption and, if available, the electricity generation of the PV system are also taken into account. In the process, neoom Ai also learns with data from the past and thus gets to know the site better and better in order to make more accurate forecasts.
As soon as the charging strategy "Intelligent" is selected in the tile, you set both your desired departure time and the desired charge amount.
Attention:
Because neoom Ai takes care of charging cost-efficiently, it can certainly happen that the electric vehicle does not start charging immediately after being plugged into the charging station and after clicking the charging strategy. Provided that the specified departure time and charge amount are within a realistic range (see the note further below), the electric vehicle will be charged reliably and will contain the specified charge amount at the specified time.
Note on departure time and charge amount:
The electric vehicle is always charged in a price-optimized way with the set charge amount up to the specified time once it has been plugged in. The longer the time period and the smaller the required charge amount, the higher the savings potential, because neoom Ai has more opportunities here to use hours with favourable tariffs or PV electricity generation for charging. If the electric vehicle is not needed at the specified departure time after all and remains plugged in, it will, if possible, continue to be charged with the available PV electricity (if a PV system is present).
The charge amount can be set accordingly with the slider in the app. The specified kilometrage of the charge amount is calculated from the average consumption of the electric vehicle that you entered when capturing the electric car data.
If the desired charge amount is not expected to be reached by the departure time, a fast charging process with the set charge amount is carried out. In this case, you receive a corresponding info in the app.
What different statuses are there and what do they mean?
Car charging ("Auto lädt") - The electric vehicle is plugged into the charging station and is charging
EV charging paused ("Autoladen pausiert") - The charging process was paused; the electric vehicle is not being charged
EV charging paused externally ("Autoladen von extern pausiert") - The charging process was paused outside the neoom App. Either the charging process was ended in the car, via the car's app, or the charging process was ended via a schedule in the car or in the car app.
EV charging paused by neoom Ai ("Autoladen von neoom Ai pausiert") - The charging process was temporarily paused by neoom Ai and will be resumed automatically. With the Solar charging strategy, in this case there is not enough PV surplus available to maintain the charging process. With the Intelligent charging strategy, neoom Ai has not scheduled a charging process or has postponed the charging process to a later and cheaper time. It can also be that the draw limit of the grid connection is nearly reached and neoom Ai ensures that the power limits are not exceeded.
Car connected, not charging ("Auto verbunden, lädt nicht") - The electric vehicle is plugged into the charging station, but charging could not be started. Either authorization of the charging process did not work or communication with the car's charge controller could not be established.
Car not connected ("Auto nicht verbunden") - The electric vehicle is not connected to the charging station
Device not reachable ("Gerät nicht erreichbar") - The charging station cannot be reached by the neoom BEAAM. You must check whether the device is switched on and ready for operation, and whether it is reachable for the BEAAM in the local network or the IP address of the device in the site configuration is correct.