Finnish EV charging startup eMabler partners with Fusebox to turn electric vehicles into profitable virtual power plants

Finnish electric vehicle (EV) charging startup eMabler and Fusebox, virtual power plant provider are collaborating to use electric vehicle charging to balance the energy grid. This first such commercial solution reduces energy costs and helps EV charging station owners to contribute to a greener, more sustainable environment.

Kristian Lahtinen, Country Manager for Finland & Sweden, Fusebox: “The joint solution presents a new business opportunity to charging station owners. “Reducing the charging speed on an electric vehicle charger can make you money while reducing CO2 emissions.”

Fusebox is solving the global problem of balancing the electricity supply and demand in the electricity system. Demand response means changing the power consumption of electric devices to match the supply of energy being generated rather than always increasing energy production, often with fossil fuels.  

Visa Parviainen, Chief Ecosystems and Partners Officer, eMabler: “Electric vehicles at homes and offices stay unused for a long time. Therefore, these locations are perfect for virtual power plant services. A typical electric vehicle will recharge fully in a few hours, so there is plenty of time to make up the short charging speed adjustments. This makes EV charging service ideal to support the energy transition.”

eMabler offers a dedicated interface for virtual power plant platforms, which allows the platform to monitor and adjust charging quickly and automatically. Fusebox combines the chargers into a virtual power plant and provides load reduction as a service to balance the electricity grid. In Finland, virtual power plants can participate in the Demand Response market operated by grid operator Fingrid. 

“Our collaboration with Fusebox exemplifies the entire purpose of our API-first EV charging strategy,” said Parviainen. “We give our customers tools to connect their EV charging business to other systems and ecosystems to create new value-added services and businesses,” Visa adds. 

Soon, the market will also support bi-directional charging standards. This means that the electric vehicles’ batteries can feed electricity to the grid or the building. When electric vehicles are plugged in the chargers, the battery in the car can participate in the electricity market at peak times of demand and earn revenue for that while also contributing to a greener, more sustainable environment. 

Jonne Jäppinen, Manager, System Operation Digitalization, Fingrid: “As electric vehicle charging becomes more mainstream, it’s important to ensure that electric vehicle chargers and batteries become an active participant of the energy system. This will help us balance the grid as production volatility increases with increases in renewable energy production.” 

www.emabler.com
www.fusebox.energy