• Joint effort to accelerate fleet electrification and increase grid reliability
• Rhythmos to allow utilities to optimize charging schedules for fleet and EV customers via the Driivz electric vehicle (EV) charging and energy management platform.
• The platform can more than double EV charging capacity with little to no changes to infrastructure, enabling lower costs for planned infrastructure investments while delivering the charging capacity that customers need.
With a target set for 50 percent of new vehicles in the US to be electric by 2030, and utilities and fleet operators are expected to play a critical role in managing the fast-growing EV charging ecosystem, Rhythmos and Driivz are teaming up to optimize EV charging for utilities and fleets. The Rhythmos utility-deployed solution can more than double charging capacity by optimizing charging schedules pushed through the Driivz EV charging and energy management platform to participating customers. The Driivz platform, which already manages tens of thousands of existing charging points globally, will soon optimize on-site charging of EV fleet vehicles consistent with the needs of the fleet operator and within the constraints of the utility infrastructure through integration with Rhythmos’ platform. Rhythmos and Driivz are targeting utilities in California to kickstart the partnership.
“Electrified transportation plays a major role in decarbonization goals, yet, the industry faces many challenges along the way. To address these challenges, flexible energy management solutions are essential to provide the necessary capacity for EV charging while limiting the impact on the deployment of charging infrastructure. Finding the right mix between the two is crucial to avoiding network congestion, maximizing the use of clean electricity, and lowering charging costs,” said Doron Frenkel, founder and CEO of Driivz. “Our progressive solution for EV charging and energy management combined with Rhythmos’ utility expertise and technology is critical for the industry as high-volume EV charging soars.”
Rhythmos and Driivz have built software platforms spanning the EV charging ecosystem. Driivz provides charging and energy management solutions allowing utilities, automakers, and EV charging companies to deliver modular services to fleets, commercial and industrial buildings, residential buildings and other customers. Designed by utility professionals, the Rhythmos platform empowers utilities and fleet operators to optimize EV charging, enhance grid reliability, and accelerate the adoption of EVs. Utility professionals designed the company’s SaaS platform to address the growing impact of EVs on electric utilities and bring predictability, flexibility, and intelligent energy management to the grid, facilitating faster, more reliable, and cost-efficient EV adoption for fleets and utilities.
"The interface between EVs and the grid is becoming increasingly complicated, and most current solutions are, in effect, demand response management platforms looking to the utility for information they don't have the tools to provide. But Rhythmos and Driivz together can connect the critical dots to manage the complex charging ecosystem," said Ken Munson, CEO of Rhythmos. "For a typical utility using our platform, we estimate that EV penetrations can double, or more, compared to unmanaged or time-of-use based EV charging without upgrades and associated expense."
Driivz operates in more than 30 US, European, and Asian countries. Driivz manages 100s of millions of EV transactions for millions of EV drivers and repairs up to 80 percent of operations issues remotely. The company supports over 750 charger models and is one of the first industry players to be certified for OCPP 2.0.1.
As a leading provider of modern analytics and smart energy management solutions for the EV industry, Rhythmos uses modern analytics to address the needs of fleet managers, operators, planners, and utility partners. With scalable and modular functionality, Rhythmos provides a comprehensive network solution that adapts and grows with customers, offering predictability, flexibility, and real-time transparency. Rhythmos also uses secure, industry-standard protocols to integrate charging with existing utility enterprise systems. The platform draws on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Outage Management System (OMS) and Graphical Information System (GIS) data from the grid, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) data from smart meters, market and dispatch signals from system operators and API integrations spanning the entire emerging EV charging and vehicle telematics ecosystem.