Should the Company Trucks Go Electric? Depends on When You Charge

The Southern Company didn’t request this aviator to waste it connected EVs. The firm—which operates Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and Mississippi Power, arsenic good arsenic different subsidiaries crossed six confederate and midwestern states—has been utilizing Ford electrical vehicles since 2023. Its fleet now includes much than 200 F-150 Lightning trucks and 150 Ford Pro chargers. The institution astatine 1 constituent aimed to electrify half of its fleet by 2030; it now says it is nary longer pursuing that goal, but will proceed to modulation its vehicles.1

Now it wanted to spot if it could usage Ford Pro’s charging package to ramp down its vehicles’ and chargers’ power depletion during periods of precocious demand. (Ford Pro is nan commercialized fleet limb of nan US automaker.) Such “managed charging” programs prevention fleet owners money by scheduling charging for times erstwhile utilities are charging little for electricity, and put little accent connected nan electrical grid. Southern Company is peculiarly alert of that past point: With nan AI boom, information centers are flooding into nan US southeast.

“We’re trying to fig retired really we tin prevention each kilowatt-hour that is retired location to beryllium saved, because we’ll person a much constrained strategy successful nan future,” says Lea Clanton, who directs business improvement and invention for Southern Company New Ventures.

Ironically, nan experiment’s astir breathtaking moments came erstwhile nan 2 companies worked together to unopen down each their chargers. By turning disconnected nan chargers for 30 minutes—something that mightiness beryllium abruptly basal during very basking aliases acold days, aliases during an emergency—Southern Company and Ford opportunity they were capable to trim nan request connected nan grid by 0.5 megawatts, instantly freeing up an magnitude of energy balanced to what’s needed to powerfulness betwixt 200 and 450 homes for a year.

One day, EV fleets for illustration those operated by nan Southern Company mightiness usage this benignant of package to prevention money and electricity. But Clanton says nan inferior patient needs much accusation earlier it’s fresh to hook its EVs up to smarter chargers. It needs to guarantee that its drivers—especially those responding to energy emergencies—always person complaint erstwhile nan unexpected happens.

“If we were to adopt thing much permanent, we would request to return immoderate clip to amended understand wherever our drivers request to be, really often they charge, and make judge that it’s not going to effect our transportation of clean, safe, reliable, affordable power to customers astatine all, 24 hours a day,” says Clanton.

1Update, September 4 astatine 3 pm: This communicative was updated to correct specifications astir Southern Company's efforts to electrify its fleet.