As utility leaders gather at Future of Utilities London, we're predicting that grid flexibility will be one topic that's top of the agenda. The message is clear: the grid needs to be more adaptable. And fast.

The pressure on utilities to decarbonize is mounting, but the infrastructure required to enable this is outdated. While renewables and electrification are advancing, the grid wasn’t built to handle the added complexity of energy types. At the same time, customers and regulators are demanding a more dynamic, digitalized power system.

With a platform that’s designed to seamlessly connect a disjointed energy ecosystem, Volteras is helping utilities make that leap. Here's how.

How EV charging supports demand response

The rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is complex. EVs need electricity, and unmanaged charging, especially during peak hours, can overwhelm local distribution networks.

The best way to manage this is smart EV charging. This way, utilities can shift EV load to off-peak times, or pause charging temporarily during peak demand. For this, they need hyper-relevant information about the grid to know when to stop or start charge.

At Volteras, our platform sends energy data in real time between devices and businesses. When partnered with Volteras, smart charging providers can manage all connected EVs and then distribute charging across all vehicles to avoid demand spikes. This enables utilities to send remote signals to connected EVs and chargers to adjust the load in real time, based on grid needs.

With managed charging, utilities avoid strain, vehicles stay charged, and emissions fall. In fact, intelligently timed EV charging has been shown to reduce carbon emissions by 10–30%, simply by aligning with cleaner power sources and grid-friendly hours.

Real-time data is crucial for utilities

Flexibility depends the availability of live, accurate information. Utilities need to know what’s happening across their network—not just at sub-stations, but also where EVs, batteries, and smart devices are located.

Utilities need accurate, reliable information to know which vehicles are charging right now, what their state of charge is or whether a home battery is discharging during an event. With a constant surveillance of real-time status, grid operators can respond instantly to changes in situations, like to a drop in solar generation. They can reduce EV charging draw in one part of a city while increasing it elsewhere, or orchestrate distributed energy resources (DERs).

Utilities can also offer their customers incentives to reduce electricity demand during peak periods.

High-quality data from 30+ brands

At Volteras, we're working with some of the biggest smart charging and energy management providers, giving them the best quality data for utilities to access. Directly via our platform or via third party partnerships, utilities can build a smart charging solution or connect with a third party.

Our platform streams telematics data from multiple vehicle brands to facilitate charging programs for their utility customers. This live data comes from EVs, chargers, solar inverters, home batteries, and more. It’s updated every few seconds, with 99% uptime that’s upheld because of service level agreements (SLAs) and official partnerships with OEMs.

When smart charging providers integrate with Volteras, they’ll get access to 30+ integrated brands for their utility customers. With Volteras’ white-labeled consent flow integrated into the utility’s app or webpage, the utility’s customer can connect their chosen vehicle to smart charging program with just a few clicks.

We handle the integrations and complexity behind the scenes so our customers can focus on operations, not workarounds.

Secure, reliable data from the source

Many platforms offering energy or mobility data rely on scraping, hardware, or unofficial APIs. This doesn’t work to seamlessly provide reliable, up-to-date information from devices.

Our OEM-authorized streaming not only means stability; it also comes with built-in compliance. Every signal sent through Volteras, whether it’s a data pull or a remote command, is encrypted and protected. The platform runs on AWS infrastructure with over 140 security certifications, and aligns with strict OEM data standards. With industrial-strength reliability, utilities can trust data and act on it with confidence.

Integrating DERs into grid operations

Today’s landscape has energy resources everywhere: solar panels on roofs; batteries in basements; EVs plugged in at offices and depots. These distributed energy resources (DERs) can either disrupt the grid or stabilize it. At Volteras, we’re focused on the latter.

Our platform aggregates data across a wide range of DERs, standardizing it for use in utility systems. That means a utility can monitor and manage EVs, inverters, chargers, and heat pumps from a single interface.

Charging can be triggered when solar power peaks, with home batteries discharging to support the grid: a collection of devices becomes a virtual power plant. What makes it all possible is the underlying infrastructure—real-time, reliable, and secure.

Scalable flexibility programs and renewables

Volteras provides the data pipelines, control mechanisms, and real-time visibility needed to turn distributed devices into grid assets. This all contributes towards supporting renewables— when smart charging providers align charging periods with high renewable energy generation and store energy in EVs, this reduces reliance on utilities to procure expensive fossil fuel based electricity. It also reduces demand at peak times

We’re building the infrastructure that makes a flexible energy future real, and easy. Want to know more? We’ll be exhibiting at Future of Utilities—find us at Stand 34. If you’re not able to make it, drop us a note to see how we can help.