For an operator with many sites, the electricity bill is rarely one line. Part of it follows the energy you consume, and part follows the highest power you draw. Charging that simply follows driver demand tends to stack sessions in the same evening hours, on every site at once. Grid-aware charging aims to flatten that curve. This article explains where the bill comes from, what to do first, and what the rules already require.
Read the bill before touching the stations
The structure depends on your country, your grid operator and your supplier contract. Typically, a commercial connection combines:
Take one real invoice per site type and identify each component. Without that step, any optimisation is a guess. Do not rely on a generic percentage for the weight of each line: it varies from one contract to another, and only your invoices tell you.
Peak shaving first
If a share of your bill depends on peak power, the first lever is to avoid simultaneous peaks. Peak shaving means limiting the total power a site draws, then distributing it among active sessions. Non-urgent sessions are slowed or shifted. Urgent ones are protected.
This is a site-level function of the CSMS. It relies on the ability to send power limits to the stations. In practice, that means smart charging features of the protocol your stations speak. OCPP 1.6 and 2.0.1 are not compatible with each other, so a multi-site estate with several generations of hardware must handle both. The 2.0.1 certification programme includes a Smart Charging profile, which is a useful criterion when you buy new stations.
AFIR points the same way. Public points built after 13 April 2024, or renovated after 14 October 2024, must be capable of smart recharging, meaning that charging intensity can be adjusted in real time from information received electronically (art. 5(8) and art. 2 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804). A site that can already apply a power ceiling has the capability the rule describes.
Then move load in time, and across sites
Once peaks are under control, two further steps become useful.
Shift in time. If your supplier offers a dynamic price contract, flexible sessions can be placed in cheaper hours. Under Directive (EU) 2019/944, art. 11, a customer with a smart meter can request one from any supplier with more than 200 000 customers. Check availability for each connection.
Compare sites. A portfolio view shows which sites hit their peaks, at which hours, and which have spare capacity. It also reveals whether a site's limit is set by the contract or by the physical connection. This comparison needs consistent data across sites: the same meter readings, the same time stamps, the same status codes.
Buildings add their own constraints. The recast buildings directive (EPBD, Directive (EU) 2024/1275) asks, in art. 14, for pre-cabling that allows simultaneous use and, in non-residential buildings, a load management system where feasible. If you operate on customer premises, this will appear in your specifications.
Keep the driver in view
Cost reduction must not create failed sessions. Define for each site a minimum power below which a session is never reduced, and a rule for vehicles that must leave soon. Keep records of the limits applied, so you can answer complaints and see the effect on your invoices.
Public price display is a separate matter. For points of 50 kW or more, the ad hoc price must be shown per kWh, with possible occupation fees per minute, before the session starts (AFIR art. 5(4)). Internal load management does not change that obligation.
What to do this week
1. Collect one recent electricity invoice for each type of site, and mark the energy, grid and time-based components.
2. List the stations by OCPP version and check which accept power limits from your CSMS.
3. Pick the site with the sharpest evening peak and set a total power ceiling as a trial.
4. Compare the next invoice with the previous one, and keep the limits log.
5. Ask your supplier whether a dynamic price contract is open to you.
GFO Omni is a CSMS supporting OCPP 1.6, 2.0.1 and 2.1 that supervises charge points across sites.