Company Overview
We.EV is a division of WEL Networks (WEL) – an electricity distributor serving the Northern and Central Waikato region of New Zealand. WEL Networks is the sixth-largest electricity distribution company in the country, with over 100,000 connections. WEL Networks entered EV charging back in 2015 with a few dozen public chargers – all free to use for the public – that aimed to increase EV uptake in the region.
A study on the impact of EVs on electricity distribution proved to WEL that the proliferation of EV charging infrastructure would significantly impact the energy that its distribution network is required to handle if smart charging solutions are not implemented. Large savings can be made if smart EV charging solutions are implemented and charging is moved to off-peak times.
With that philosophy in mind, We.EV was launched in 2022 to take over public charging operations and initially focus on commercial fleets. Recently the company is starting to make inroads into residential charging and working with local government and universities for their car and bus fleets.
As experts deeply rooted in power and energy, We. EV’s paramount mission remained the same: help customers manage cost and demand on the infrastructure to avoid unnecessary upgrades and get the most out of their equipment. We.EV does that by carefully analyzing each customer’s energy usage and recommending a unique solution that enables the smart management of assets and reduces capital costs.
“We will never suggest something our clients will never need or use, and we always give them valuable insights about cost optimization and equipment utilization.”
Andrew Lockie,
Technical Lead, We.EV
Challenges & Opportunities
WEL expects to see more than 42,000 EVs in Waikato by 2033, so the charging infrastructure must keep pace. With the market still in its early days, We.EVs efforts were aimed at educating the public on the value of installing smart vs. dumb chargers, making sure the chargers have dynamic load management on them and are connected to a cloud backend. This approach would reduce client capital costs, protect the grid, and avoid unnecessary infrastructure updates.
Operating in a growing and segregated market, We.EV were also facing challenges integrating with other in-house-built solutions that lacked compliance with international standards. Thus, solutions working worldwide, such as eMSP roaming and complex payment workflows, were proving difficult to implement on their home turf.
On the hardware side, they mainly relied on hardware-based load management and testing firmware updates on little-known charger brands with poor OCPP protocol implementation, continuously leading to unsatisfactory results.
After dabbling with a home-grown charge point management solution themselves, We.EV quickly realized that an out-of-the-box, internationally compliant, hardware-agnostic white-label EV charging management platform could give them a much better competitive edge with capabilities not yet offered by others in New Zealand.
“The AMPECO platform is very powerful! It has a lot of functionality that opens new opportunities for us to differentiate on the market and add value to our customers!”
Craig Marshall,
Head of We.EV
Solution
We.EV selected AMPECO for its powerful EV charging management platform that accommodates their immediate needs and enables them to expand their offering in the future. Key criteria included the ability to manage multiple EV charging use cases from one place, advanced load management capabilities, flexible API integrations, full compliance with industry standards, a hardware-agnostic approach to chargers, and more.
Dynamic load management (DLM)
AMPECO’s DLM efficiently distributes electricity between charge points and other consumers and can allow prioritization of vehicles, drivers, or state-of-charge based on location needs. We.EV relies on these capabilities and is developing opportunities to connect with WEL’s DSO software via API to automate power limit adjustments.
Smart charging in the mobile app
AMPECO’s white-label charging app allows EV drivers at home to monitor and schedule their charging by defining the start and end time for the charging. Smart charging plays a significant role for We.EV in offering convenient charging but also creating higher awareness among home charging EV drivers of their energy consumption and potential cost savings.
Extensive and well-documented API
AMPECO’s comprehensive API allows full access to the platform’s capabilities and available EV charging data. This allows easy third-party software integrations and automated operational data transfer. We.EV leverages the API functionality to enable DSO-level load management and to empower their B2B clients to do bulk operations such as pushing existing RFID cards or user data.
Web portal for B2B clients
We.EV’s site hosts and partners can access a dedicated portal that gives them visibility to their chargers only and autonomy to define their own pricing, invite users, and manage billing.
Flexible payment options
AMPECO allows a variety of payment and authentication mechanisms, such as prepaid, credit card, corporate billing, subscriptions, RFID, and payment terminals, which gives We.EV the flexibility to easily serve multiple charging use cases. They are now onboarding a payment terminal to allow for faster, more convenient ad hoc payments for EV drivers.
We.EV have also enabled AutoCharge functionality on some chargers, giving them an additional edge on the local market.
OCPI roaming
AMPECO’s proven OCPI protocol implementation will allow We.EV to enter into partnerships with other compatible networks, and build direct P2P OCPI connections that will further help expand and monetize their operations.
Result
Expanded offering in multiple use cases
Adopting the hardware-agnostic and fully OCPP-compliant AMPECO platform allows We.EV to grow by installing various charger point types and brands that address multiple charging use cases – such as AC for home and DC for bus charging.
Balanced grid
Integration with AMPECO via API gave WEL the opportunity to develop solutions to ensure effective visibility and control over EV charging in the future and minimize the future network build required to support it.
Cost savings for customers
Using AMPECO as a centralized EV charging management system with advanced load management and smart charging capabilities allows We.EV to recommend solutions to their customers that maximize the utilization of current network connections and electrical infrastructure without unnecessary additional investment.
Value added services
We.EV provides B2B clients with API access to its EV charging management platform, enabling customers to automate processes such as billing and user management. For example, a university fleet customer who uses RFID cards for authentication linked their internal systems with AMPECO to manage the user authentication side independently. A similar setup allowed another fuel card provider to push all their RFID cards into the system easily.
Optimized community revenue
As a community-owned organization, We.EV is able to give back to the community. All its profits go to the WEL Energy Trust to be distributed throughout the Waikato region. By increasing the proliferation, ease of use, and payments for EV charging, the company is increasing the monetization of the entire network while at the same time reducing the cost of distribution.
“I like the collaborative approach of working with AMPECO! They are always proactive in helping us identify new opportunities and supporting us in making them a reality!”
Craig Marshall,
Head of We.EV
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