Volterra transforms its operations as an EV Charge Point Operator
Volterra is a well-established electricity producer and supplier, and its activities revolve around the development of renewable energy and energy storage projects as well as in the wholesale and retail of electricity and natural gas. Furthermore, the company is becoming a part of the European electro vehicle (EV) market and is steadily investing financial resources to extend its portfolio in the energy spectrum. Volterra has activities as both an EV Charge Point Operator and an E-Mobility Service Provider.
Volterra aims to expand its business operations in the field of electromobility, setting up a charging network for electric vehicles. To meet this goal, the company needed to install EVSE’s at locations across Greece and be able to manage them centrally and remotely, through a web-based digital platform. Besides the ability to alter the configurations of charging devices, manage the billing of charging sessions and carry out maintenance operations, the company needed to introduce innovative software technologies involving the energy market’s integration through the platform, to offer charging pricing profiles that correspond to real-time price data. Additionally, such integration had to take under consideration the vital contribution of the renewables in the energy mix. Finally, ensuring the stability of the energy grid was a prerequisite for mastering the operation of the charging network.
Optechain addressed the challenge by granting access to OpteHub platform for charger operators, which enables the remote management for an unlimited number of chargers. The platform’s user interface is the gateway for all the functionalities that answer to the challenges deriving from the managerial workload of a charging network.
Volterra is now able to remotely monitor its chargers individually, having access to paramount information, such as the number of daily user sessions, average charging session duration, daily power output per charger, daily revenue per charger and average charging session duration.
Moreover, the company’s platform administrators can set the pricing policy per charger, Start / Stop charging sessions, set meter values per charger, alter the configurations of any charger and Lock / Unlock charging stations. The dynamic load balancing functionality of the system allows for a balanced supply of power between chargers and other on-site devices. It is important to note that platform administrators are given access to a set of statistical data related to charge points, through reports, which are generated automatically and periodically.
The data includes utilization of charge points, aggregated monthly transaction per device, number of active connectors among other essential information. Optechain’s solution for Volterra, introduced price prediction algorithms that will contribute to the reduction of charging costs.
Overall, the company has minimized the power management challenges and is on a fast-track expansion as a Charge Point Operator.
