Exploring the Environmental Impact of Smart Energy Metering
Electric vehicles and trucks have gone mainstream, with exponential sales growth equivalent to 2.3 million electric cars in the first quarter of 2023. The current estimate for the year-round sales is 14 million. The growth rate is seen in the positive light of pressing sustainable and eco-friendly demands for cars and other motors to consume less fuel or emit less carbon. They are deemed more environment-friendly, significantly emitting fewer planet-warming emissions compared to their gasoline counterparts. However, EV vehicles do present another pressing problem, and that being high-power consumption. Public utility EV charging stations at malls, communities, workplaces, and other potential areas offer easy powering of EV vehicles. Even homes are installing EV chargers as well. Unfortunately, EV chargers are known to increase the site’s annual electricity usage, resulting in higher electricity bills. Therefore, energy metering has become paramount.
The US president, Biden, is already aiming to achieve an 50% rise in electric vehicles among all new cars sold in the country by 2030. The UK is not far behind in its estimation of rolling out 8 million and 11 million hybrid or electric cars by 2030. These staggering estimations only elevate the growing importance of energy management solutions in the coming days.
Energy metering is essential and has its share of unique benefits.
What is Energy Metering for EV Charging Stations?
Electric meter for EV chargers enables apartments, malls, business complexes, and individual households to collect EV charging data and measure individual usage while generating invoices on overall consumptions.
Energy metering for EV chargers has proved to be a hot amenity for tenants and customers. Adequate monitoring of power consumption and reallocating costs have always been a matter of concern for property managers, tenants, and building owners.
Smart electric meters for EV chargers have proved effective in more ways than one. These metering solutions allow properties of any size to collect EV charging data easily based on individual use by connecting to the existing building network, helping owners allocate costs and efficiently generate consumption invoices. This simplifies the billing process, and residents pay only for their use.
Furthermore, EV chargers with meters allocate energy consumption fairly at your property and reduce non-revenue energy usage. Additionally, the owner can make a substantial profit margin depending on factors like property location and the size of the EV charging station.
These energy metering solutions are compatible with any consumer-grade or industry-grade EV charges available in the market.
Environment-Friendly EV Charger Energy Metering – Decoding the Paradox
A lack of sustainable solutions for increasing energy consumption pan world is becoming a concern for people. Businesses are finding ways to reduce their carbon footprints while motivating their employees and customers to do the same, even at a miniscule level. EV vehicles are just a fraction of the humongous effort expected from the entire global population. With energy metering solutions in place for EV chargers and made accessible for the masses, the hope of doing right for our environment is shining brighter. EV charger metering can help residents, companies, and the entire community reap the benefits, from offering EV charging, getting tax breaks, improving branding, balancing energy usage, and much more.
But is it just a paradox? Unfortunately, most power grids powering charging stations still run on non-renewable and harmful energy sources. By having a smart separate meter for EV chargers, the total power consumed can be controlled. This will reduce excessive energy usage from fossil fuels in a great way. And countries should step up their initiatives on green energy to balance the damage.
On the brighter side, nations like the UK replaced non-renewable energy with clean energy by more than 43.1% in 2020, and two years later, the country recorded its lowest-ever carbon intensity.
That being said, EV charging solutions can do so much as make users more responsible towards their energy usage, but for nations to become truly green, they need to have more renewable energy sources. Proper infrastructure and general awareness are equally needed to optimally utilize the unique benefits of EV charger metering solutions.
Top Benefits for EV Charger Energy Metering
Smart meters for EV chargers are truly a gigantic initiative toward a greener future, enabling nations to balance demand with adequate supply and offering security. A flexible energy system is created where clean energy sources can easily replace unclean ones. Furthermore, these EV metering solutions allow individual users to play a significant role while understanding their energy usage and acting responsibly towards it. This transition is vital for sustaining our environment and its natural resources for future generations.
Smart Meters and Smart Energy System
Smart meters for EV chargers are truly the gigantic initiative towards a greener future, enabling nations to balance demand with adequate supply and offering security. A flexible energy system is created where clean energy sources can easily replace the unclean ones. Furthermore, these EV metering solutions allow individual users to play a significant role while understanding their energy usage and acting responsibly towards it. This transition is vital for sustaining our environment and its natural resources for future generations.
Monitors Total Energy Consumed
The primary benefit of energy metering is the ability to monitor total energy consumed and gain a deeper understanding of EV power stations' energy consumption and usage patterns. This feature enables users to accurately determine the exact share of the total energy usage for EV chargers. With the help of wireless connectivity, as permeated by the smart EV chargers with meters, remote monitoring is possible. Further, the historical records of past consumption will reveal consumption patterns and unearth when the highest demand occurs.
Maintains a Record of Electricity Consumption
Smart EV chargers with separate meters can automatically measure, record, and transmit consumption data. Tracking real-time data usage and generating detailed reports allows users to get near real-time consumption feedback on their total power use. Information such as when and how much electricity has been used helps utilities and individual consumers to understand their energy usage and costs, accurately predict future electricity demand, optimize grid operations, and better evaluate the impacts of electric vehicles on the grid.
These abilities of energy metering will eventually drive more EV cars to be out and running on the roads shortly – a strong step towards choosing sustainable traveling.
Balances the Energy Flow
Electric vehicle chargers are known to add a considerable load to the electrical circuit in your home. This increases the chances of the circuit overloading, eventually causing the breakers to trip.
Such a situation can be averted by opting for separate meters for EV chargers or trying dynamic load balancing. The latter is one of the many smart features allowing a charger to constantly monitor and evenly distribute the available capacity to avoid overloads. This will prevent the tripping of circuit breakers regardless of how many other power-intensive appliances are turned on.
Optimal Utilization of Locally Generated Power
EV charger metering solutions can generate energy using solar panels or wind turbines. They can help users optimize the locally generated energy and reward users to control where the energy is used and to power their vehicles.
The energy meters not only help users to optimize energy usage but also draw power from sustainable sources. This reduces carbon footprint and saves extra energy usage and costs; furthermore, decreasing the amount of electricity purchased from the grid.
A Great Save on the Electricity Bills
Connecting an EV charger directly to the meter box can significantly reduce costs, irrespective of pricey installation. With recorded historical electricity usage and near real-time insights, you can manage electricity consumption and save on your electricity bill. Further, with scheduling features, you can easily charge EV vehicles during off-peak hours when there's less pressure on the power grids. This approach considerably saves consumption costs. Also, leveraging the EV battery to provide power to the local grid, your house, office, and even the entire community promises huge cost savings. And, through dynamic load balancing that allows you to use the same meter box and electrical circuitry, you can avoid installation charges, pricey new meter boxes, and higher monthly connection costs from the utility provider.
Conclusion
Energy metering offers numerous benefits like the ones mentioned above and many more. The efficiency and convenience of powering EV cars at home while saving enough power for other uses can easily result in fewer charges on your annual electricity bills. It keeps energy consumption under control and offers a sustainable way to reap the benefits without adding too much to the environmental damage.