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EV Charging Infrastructure
Grid-Integrated Charging
Long-cycle programs where regulation, capital, and grid reliability define the pace.
Example organizations in this space:
ABB
Siemens
Eaton
ChargePoint
This interactive experience is the shipped product itself — the same application code customers run in production, mounted read-only in your browser over a real sample journey. Not a video, not a mockup: because the demo and the product are one codebase, it can never drift from the real thing.
Inside this journey
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Pre-Sales
Qualify and diagnose before investing in hands-on evaluation and scoping.
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Qualification
Confirm budget range, decision authorities, timeline, and program enrollment interest before investing in hands-on evaluation.
Qualification Questions
Operational and technical fit — a quick readiness check
- Roughly how many electric vehicles or charging ports are in scope for this project?
- Are your vehicles and chargers currently capable of bidirectional (vehicle-to-grid) operation?
- Is the site enrolled in, or likely eligible for, a utility demand response or peak-reduction program that would pay for flexibility?
Budget
- Do you have an allocated budget or financing target for a grid-integrated charging solution? If yes, please select the approximate range.
Decision authority
- Who is the primary decision maker for projects like this, and who else typically influences the decision? (title or role is fine)
Timeline and critical drivers
- What is your target timeframe to have a solution operational at the site?
- What's the primary driver for that timing (for example: utility rate change, planned fleet growth, facility upgrade)? A short sentence helps us prioritize.
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Outcome Discovery
Map current charging loads, constraints, stakeholders, success metrics, and the consequences of unmanaged charging.
Discovery Questions
Your depot, in one paragraph
- How many chargers and active vehicles are currently hosted at the site(s) you're evaluating?
- Tell me about a typical weekday charging profile, including peak start and end times and average kW drawn per charger.
- Describe the metering boundary that captures charging, is it dedicated to the depot, shared with a building, or split across meters?
- When was the last time you could point to a specific invoice line where EV charging drove a demand charge spike?
- Which dollar amount or percentage increase on a single bill would trigger a capital decision to change charging behavior?
Where the bills start to hurt
- Assume the next bill shows a 30 percent demand charge increase attributable to charging, what immediate actions would finance or operations demand?
- How often do your highest charging kW periods overlap with utility system peaks or the building peak load?
- Select the range that best describes the recurring monthly cost uplift from unmanaged charging you currently see.
- Recall the last time you bulk-shifted charging to avoid a peak, what outcome and trade-offs did that change produce?
- State the single reporting metric that, if present on monthly statements, would force executive attention every month.
Who signs, who waits, and who can stop it
- Which decision authority can veto this project and what specific concern would cause that veto?
- Who on your staff tracks fleet energy spend day to day, and who controls capital approvals for depot infrastructure?
- How many distinct stakeholder groups must be briefed and signed off before a pilot can begin?
- Walk me through the last procurement for similar infrastructure, where did the timeline slip and why?
- Provide the single assurance, delivered as a concrete deliverable or metric, that would unlock an expedited approval from leadership.
Does the tech actually fit your fleet
- Point to the firmware or vehicle compatibility issue that would stop integration work before it begins.
- List the system integrations required for commissioning, for example fleet telematics, battery management system access, meter APIs, building EMS, or DERMS endpoints.
- Identify who owns each integration endpoint and whether API keys or data extracts are already available.
- Outline your current telemetry cadence, where the telemetry is stored, and how accessible it is for third-party analysis.
- Name the one missing integration or data point that would force you to pause the pilot.
Day-to-day ops, who will run it
- Assume the platform requires four hours per week of operational oversight, which teams or roles would pick up that work?
- Estimate the FTEs or contractor hours available for integration, commissioning, and ongoing support in your organization.
- Indicate which role will own incident response for charging-related outages and what escalation path they follow.
- Are there existing change control windows for firmware updates and commissioning activities at your sites?
- Point to the single operational constraint that would force you to delay or cancel deployment.
Regulatory, warranty and interconnection red flags
- Which interconnection or utility requirement poses the greatest risk to your schedule?
- Summarize any vehicle warranty provisions you have seen that limit bidirectional charging or set battery cycling caps.
- Provide the utility contact role, program enrollment owner, and whether you have a named account representative.
- How long have interconnection reviews taken for comparable projects, and what caused the longest delay?
- Point out any regulatory or warranty condition that would make you decline bidirectional operation, even with a strong financial case.
What's at stake operationally and financially
- If you scale from 50 to 500 vehicles without load management, what one-time infrastructure upgrades do you estimate would be required?
- How do you model the risk of program rule changes or utility rate revisions that would reduce projected demand response revenue?
- Recall the most recent firmware or interoperability incident that caused schedule slippage, and quantify the labor or cost impact.
- Identify the financial model inputs you want stress tested, for example dispatch frequency, vehicle availability, battery degradation assumptions, and program dispatch probability.
- State the downside scenario your CFO would cite to veto the project outright.
Comparison: the options on your desk
- List the incumbent suppliers, alternative vendors, in-house options, and utility programs you are actively considering.
- What would have to be true about your current approach for you to keep it instead of switching to an external solution?
- Has an internal team proposed building this capability, and if yes, who would lead that effort and what resources have they budgeted?
- Note any vendor claims that seem credible and any that make you skeptical, and explain why.
- If the incumbent said they could match projected demand response revenue on the same timeline, what independent evidence would persuade you to stay?
How you will measure success
- Name the single performance metric at pilot completion that would make the project an automatic yes.
- Specify the quantitative KPIs you will use to compare unmanaged charging to the managed solution, for example peak kW reduction, avoided demand charges, and incremental program revenue.
- Indicate who will own ongoing verification of savings and how frequently results must be reported to finance or the grid operator.
- How much deviation from projection would you tolerate in year one before considering contract renegotiation?
- If the pilot achieves 90 percent of targets but falls short on 10 percent of projected revenue, would you proceed to full deployment, pause for analysis, or stop?
Pilot design and go/no-go timing
- Choose the pilot scale and duration that would convince you results are representative: 30 days at 5 chargers, 90 days at 50 chargers, or propose an alternate configuration.
- Outline the acceptance tests we should run, including dispatch scenarios, percent of time at full charge by required departure, and V2G export events.
- Specify the person or role with final sign-off to move from pilot to commercial rollout and list the approvals they will require.
- How quickly can you provide site access, meter data, and sample vehicles after a signed statement of work?
- Should the pilot prove projected demand charge savings within the agreed window, what immediate internal steps would follow and who could sign commercial terms?
Practical next steps and scheduling
- What immediate barrier, if unresolved within two weeks, would prevent starting the pilot on your preferred schedule?
- Share the documents and contacts we need to draft a statement of work and a realistic schedule.
- Select your desired window for a commercial decision after a successful pilot: immediately, within 30 days, within 90 days, or longer.
- Are there procurement or legal cycles that typically add fixed weeks to contracting, and if so, how many?
- Given the key readiness items are confirmed today, how soon could your team sign a pilot statement of work?
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Solution Evaluation
Field-test load modulation, bidirectional workflows, and integrations against the buyer's technical acceptance criteria.
- desired_state
- current_state
- stakeholders
- gaps
- success_criteria
- decision_readiness
- desired_state
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- current_state
- success_criteria
- gaps
- stakeholders
- desired_state
- success_criteria
- stakeholders
- gaps
- current_state
- decision_readiness
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Solution Scope
Define hardware, software, interconnection, enrollment, responsibilities, and measurable acceptance criteria.
Scope Configuration
- Install bidirectional EV chargers
- Install revenue-grade utility metering
- Submit utility interconnection application
- Deploy real-time load management software
- Integrate with utility DERMS platforms
- Integrate with fleet management systems
- Configure rate optimization and billing export
- Enroll and configure demand response programs
- Commission demand response and V2G testing
- Configure battery-preserving V2G profiles
- Coordinate vehicle-charger firmware compatibility
- Deliver financing and incentive qualification
Scope Questions
Install bidirectional EV chargers
- How many bidirectional charger ports will you deploy at this site?
- Which charger connector types are required per vehicle (for example CCS, CHAdeMO, Type 2)?
- Specify the maximum per-charger continuous power rating (kW) for each port.
- Enter any preferred charger firmware baseline versions or minimum firmware features required for bidirectional operation (list model and version).
- Describe the vehicle battery management system (BMS) constraints we must respect (maximum charge/discharge current, permitted V2G cycles per day, minimum state-of-charge for dispatch).
Install revenue-grade utility metering
- Identify the revenue metering point and meter details to be used on the site single-line diagram (meter location, CT ratio, meter socket).
- Attach or list existing meter serial numbers and any CT/VT tag details if available.
- How will you validate revenue-grade metering installation; specify required evidence such as a NIST-traceable calibration certificate, utility-confirmed meter mapping, or billing-file parity test?
- Confirm the utility account number and service address the revenue meter will be billed under.
- Confirm whether you require on-site revenue meter data to be exported to your billing system or only to the platform for settlements.
Submit utility interconnection application
- Approximate the timeline you expect for completing the utility interconnection application and receiving preliminary approval.
- Supply the contact name and phone or email for the utility interconnection engineer or account manager handling the service address.
- State the local permit authority or jurisdiction responsible for electrical permits and any special inspection requirements that apply to the site.
- Outline planned actions if the utility requests additional studies (for example load-flow or protection studies), including who will fund and schedule them.
- Is there a current site single-line diagram (SLD) revision we should use for the interconnection application? If yes, provide revision/date.
Deploy real-time load management software
- Indicate which site telemetry and control protocol you prefer for real-time load management (for example OpenADR, MQTT over TLS, or REST webhooks) and whether TLS client certificates are available.
- How will you validate load management performance; specify measurable thresholds and evidence required such as dispatch latency, tracking error, or percent-of-target kW achieved?
- Estimate the aggregated flexible capacity (kW) you can reliably dispatch from chargers during a typical weekday peak.
- Confirm whether the site will require real-time telemetry to be streamed to an external DERMS endpoint versus only the platform.
- Rate the priority of minimizing battery degradation versus maximizing grid service revenue for the load management strategy.
Integrate with utility DERMS platforms
- Indicate which integration endpoint standard the utility DERMS requires (for example OpenADR 2.0, custom REST API) and provide endpoint URL if available.
- Supply the utility DERMS technical contact and any required security artifacts (SLA, API key provisioning process, certificate requirements).
- Select the DERMS integration tests you require: command acknowledgement, telemetry fidelity, failover behavior, timestamp synchronization.
- Enter any DERMS-specific reporting intervals or payload formats required by the utility (for example 1-second telemetry, 15-minute settlement data).
- Specify any DERMS-imposed limits on per-charger dispatch power (kW) or ramp rates we must implement.
Integrate with fleet management systems
- Does your fleet management system expose a documented API for state-of-charge (SoC), charge scheduling, or remote start/stop?
- List the vehicle makes, model years, and battery models in your fleet that must be validated for BMS compatibility.
- Describe any fleet rules for minimum SoC at dispatch, reserved energy for next trip, or maximum daily V2G cycles per vehicle.
- Supply the technical contact for the fleet operator who can authorize API credentials and provide access to vehicle telematics.
- How many vehicles will participate in V2G-enabled dispatch during peak events?
Configure rate optimization and billing export
- Quantify the expected annual demand charge savings or program revenue you want used for modeling (dollars or percent of current spend).
- Confirm whether you require exported billing files to match your existing billing system format (for example fixed-column CSV, ANSI C12.19, or custom layout).
- Attach examples of current utility billing files or a sample interval data export for mapping, if available.
- Provide the utility rate schedule or attach a copy of the tariff(s) that apply to the service address.
- Choose whether rate optimization should prioritize demand charge reduction, energy cost minimization, or program revenue.
Enroll and configure demand response programs
- Estimate the minimum flexible capacity (kW) the target utility program requires for enrollment and indicate whether you meet it.
- Confirm the utility account and provide any existing demand response program IDs or prior enrollments.
- Provide any published battery degradation reports or manufacturer guidance you want used when modeling V2G cycle impacts.
- Do you have a signed site authorization letter that allows remote dispatch of fleet vehicles for program participation?
- Specify blackout windows, fleet operational constraints, or customer-critical charging windows that cannot be overridden during DR events.
Commission demand response and V2G testing
- Select the commissioning tests you require for DR and V2G: baseline accuracy, event response, bidirectional export, and billing reconciliation.
- How will you validate demand response and V2G commissioning; specify pass/fail thresholds such as kW delivered during a DR event, round-trip efficiency, and required logs or test reports.
- Describe any vehicle vendor or warranty constraints to be honored during commissioning (for example maximum cycles, depth-of-discharge limits).
- When are acceptable windows for commissioning tests that may require temporarily taking chargers or vehicles offline?
Configure battery-preserving V2G profiles
- Choose a default V2G battery-preserving profile: conservative (low export, shallow cycles), balanced, aggressive, or custom.
- Rate how important it is to cap daily V2G cycles to protect battery warranty versus maximizing revenue.
- Specify per-vehicle depth-of-discharge (DoD) limits and minimum state-of-charge (SoC) required to meet the next scheduled trip.
- Provide any manufacturer or third-party battery cycle-life data we should use to calibrate battery-preserving profiles.
Coordinate vehicle-charger firmware compatibility
- Enter the expected charger firmware baseline and list any vehicle firmware versions that must be validated for V2G interoperability.
- List the charger model families and serial ranges that will be present at the site for firmware compatibility testing.
- Approximate the number of distinct firmware variants across chargers and vehicles that will require compatibility testing.
- Supply the firmware update owner or vendor contact who can authorize over-the-air updates and provide release notes.
Deliver financing and incentive qualification
- Specify any out-of-scope items you require to be excluded from a fixed-fee engagement (for example utility study fees, vehicle warranty negotiations, capital procurement).
- Provide the estimated upfront capital budget available and indicate whether you prefer purchase, financing, or lease for equipment.
- Name who will be responsible for applying to incentives and who has authority to sign incentive application forms.
- Who will approve final financing documents and project acceptance on your side (role and contact)?
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Mutual Commit
Finalize commercial and legal terms, program enrollment commitments, schedules, and acceptance criteria.
Agreement Modules
- Deal Structure Confirmation
- Purchase Agreement
- Subscription Agreement (Order Form)
- Master Services Agreement (MSA)
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Service Level Agreement (SLA)
- Acceptance & Commissioning Certificate
- Program Enrollment Commitment
- Utility Filings Authorization
- Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
- Warranty & Hardware Support Agreement
- Payment Schedule & Invoice Terms
- Change Order Agreement
- Termination & Early Exit Agreement
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Deployment
Operationalize rollout with readiness checks, execution, and outcome validation.
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Pre-Deployment Readiness
Capture concrete readiness facts: site owners, meter and feeder details, utility contacts, access windows, and enrollment status.
Pre-Deployment Questions
Environment and site access
- List each site included in this deployment (site name and street address). Enter one site per line.
- For each site, confirm whether the utility meter and primary feeder have been identified and assigned to a named owner (this lets us scope interconnection work).
- Confirm physical access windows and any site-specific operational constraints (list recurring access hours, on-site contact, and the earliest available installation window). We use this to schedule crews and avoid operational conflicts.
Data and configuration
- Which system categories will require integrations at each site? Select all that apply (we will map owners for each selected category).
- For the categories you selected above, is an integration owner and an expected integration readiness date identified?
- Is there an agreed source-of-truth for charger inventory (serials, model, quantity) that will be provided to the deployment team?
- If 'Yes' above, who is the named owner of the charger inventory export (name, role, email)? This contact supplies the commissioning asset list.
People and ownership
- Primary site owner for coordination on construction, access, and safety (name, role, email). This is the person crews escalate to on-site.
- Named utility contact for interconnection and program enrollment for each site (name, utility, account or meter identifier, email). If unknown, write 'Unknown'.
Timing and constraints
- What is the current utility program/enrollment status for each site (demand response, interconnection, tariff enrollment)? Select the best option.
- List any firm blackout windows, compliance gates, or milestone dates that will block on-site work (recurring times or date ranges). We will use these to build the deployment schedule.
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Configuration Details
Lock exact integration and system values: DERMS endpoints, meter interfaces, charger firmware baselines, API credentials, and dispatch settings.
Configuration Details
ENVIRONMENTS & ENDPOINTS
- Select the target deployment environment for these configuration values (Default: Production). This value is consumed by the deployment orchestration to pick environment-specific pipelines.
- Enter the exact environment instance name that will appear in configuration (format: short-name, e.g., dep-prod-us-west-1). This exact string is written into endpoint configurations.
DERMS ENDPOINTS
- Enter the primary DERMS endpoint URL to call from the platform (format: https://your-derms-endpoint.example/path). This URL is used by the DERMS connector at runtime.
- Select the DERMS API version to lock for this deployment (Default: v1). This value configures API request schemas.
METER & CHARGER INTERFACES
- Select the meter integration interface type the deployment should configure (choose the single type the platform will use).
- Enter the meter identifier to use in integration mappings (format: meter serial or GUID exactly as provided by the utility). This exact value is written to the meter mapping table.
- Select the charger firmware baseline to target for the deployed chargers (Default: Firmware-1.0.0). Use the single baseline the implementation will lock to.
INTEGRATIONS & CREDENTIAL HANDOFF
- Select the authentication method the platform will use to authenticate to the DERMS endpoint (choose one). Secrets themselves will be exchanged via the secrets manager selected below; do not paste secrets here.
- Enter the non-secret credential identifier that will be referenced in configuration (examples: client-id string, certificate name, or API key name). Do not paste secrets.
- Specify which secrets manager will hold any sensitive values for this integration (select one). Example choices: HashiCorp Vault, cloud KMS, on-prem HSM; the deployment uses this to retrieve secrets at runtime.
DISPATCH & OPERATIONAL SETTINGS
- Select the dispatch mode to lock for this site (Default: Hybrid). This determines which dispatcher the scheduling module uses.
- Enter the maximum aggregate site power limit to enforce for dispatch (numeric kW). Default: leave blank to apply the site design value — enter a number to override.
- Enter the minimum state-of-charge floor to enforce for bidirectional operations (percentage, Default: 20). This numeric percent is enforced in dispatch logic.
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Deployment
Execute installations, utility interconnection filings, firmware updates, and commissioning tests with clear owners and timelines.
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Safety & Interconnection Sign-Off
Mandatory pre-energization gate: confirm utility interconnection approval, site safety checks, and commissioning acceptance by named owners.
Checklist items
- Obtain written utility interconnection approval (Permission to Operate)
- Secure Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ)/electrical inspector sign-off
- Complete Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) execution and documented release
- Accept commissioning test report by named approvers
- Validate protective device settings and coordination
- Verify revenue-grade metering and telemetry to utility/DERMS
- Confirm emergency-stop and safety-interlock functional tests passed
- Upload approved as-built single-line diagram and site installation drawings
- Record firmware/configuration baseline and lock-change notice
- Document and close or formally defer all pre-energization non-conformances
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Success
Validate savings and demand response revenue against projections, run recurring performance reviews, and track issues and enhancement requests.
Success Reviews
- Go-live health check (weeks 1-4)
- First measurement review (weeks 4-10)
- Acceptance gate review (around day 90)
- Quarterly operational review
- Annual performance and realization review
Issues & Enhancements
- Publish the quarterly performance report with reconciled revenue, cost savings, and variance explanations within 7 business days.
- Publish the acceptance decision record with evidence for each criterion within 2 business days.
- If remediation is required, publish the remediation plan with tasks, deadlines, and verification steps within 5 business days.
- Provide documentation showing incumbent system decommissioning or read-only retention and confirm data archive completion.
- Quarterly outcomes vs projections
- Validate that quarterly demand response revenue and charger availability are tracking against Solution Scope projections or document material variances.
- Prioritize and schedule remediation of the top three operational issues affecting performance.
- Agree next quarter targets for revenue and availability and the monitoring cadence to report progress.
- Re-confirm success criteria and ownership
- Deliver a prioritized enhancement schedule showing planned delivery windows for the top backlog items.
- Open tickets for persistent operational issues with target resolution dates and verification steps.
- Annual financial reconciliation
- Confirm whether annualized demand charge savings and cumulative demand response revenue meet projections in Solution Scope and document material variances.
- Verify vehicle SLA attainment including state-of-charge by dispatch deadline and identify any systemic degradation or process changes required.
- Agree an annual monitoring cadence and specific triggers for re-optimization or additional remediation work.
- Publish the annual reconciliation report with variance analysis and recommended next steps within 10 business days.
- If systematic SLA shortfalls are found, produce an action plan with remediation tasks, expected impact, and target completion dates.
- Update the monitoring dashboard thresholds and alerting logic to reflect lessons learned from the year.
- All chargers and meter interfaces report baseline telemetry and pass basic commissioning checks.
- Owners for each acceptance criterion recorded in Solution Scope are confirmed and ready for the measurement window.
- A prioritized list of go-live blockers with remediation tasks and target completion windows is agreed.
- Publish go-live checklist with completed commissioning evidence and outstanding items for async review.
- Resolve telemetry connector errors and provide a remediation summary within 10 business days.
- Circulate operator onboarding completion report and highlight any teams needing additional training.
- Present first-window outcome data
- Determine whether measured peak demand reduction (kW) and monthly demand charge savings ($) are trending toward the targets recorded in Solution Scope.
- Agree a remediation plan with clear tasks and dates to address identified root causes ahead of the acceptance gate.
- Confirm expected timeline to the acceptance gate based on the remediation actions.
- Publish the revised demand-charge savings forecast and variance analysis incorporating first-window data within 10 business days.
- Create a prioritized remediation tracker listing each corrective action, target completion date, and acceptance-gate readiness criteria.
- Run targeted dispatch tests to validate fixes and report results before the acceptance gate.
- Restate acceptance criteria and numeric targets
- Record a documented pass or fail decision for each acceptance criterion listed in Solution Scope.
- Confirm the incumbent system is either decommissioned or formally retained read-only and that archival or migration tasks are complete.
- If any criteria failed, have an agreed remediation plan with resolution deadlines that will be tracked in ongoing reviews.
- Operational performance and uptime
- SLA and vehicle performance review
- Present 90-day outcome data against each criterion
- Diagnose gaps and root causes
- Deployment and commissioning validation
- Open issues and enhancement backlog
- Pass/fail decision and sign-off
- Issue closure and enhancement outcomes
- Remediation plan to reach acceptance gate
- Telemetry and connectivity health
- Long-term monitoring and optimization triggers
- Operational onboarding signals
- Demand response event performance check
- Agree actions and next quarter targets
- Incumbent system wind-down confirmation
- Open issues and immediate remediation
- Agree remediation items and resolution timeline