Fleets plan charging around peak electricity prices in two moves. First, they read their own tariff’s shape: when energy costs more, and whether it also charges for the site’s highest draw. Then they shape the load to fit — energy is moved into cheaper windows inside the dwell, starts are staggered, and the site’s total draw is capped. One rule outranks price throughout: every vehicle still leaves ready for its route.
Key Takeaways
- Plan from your own tariff: its time windows, and whether it charges for your site’s peak draw.
- Readiness outranks price: departure order and route need are never traded for cheaper hours.
- Averages like the EIA’s 14.53 cents/kWh describe a market, not your bill — your meter and tariff decide.
Step One: Read Your Own Tariff’s Shape
Commercial tariffs commonly price energy in more than one way. The plan starts from which structures your own tariff contains — only the tariff document and the utility can answer that:
- Time-varying energy prices. On many tariffs the per-kWh price changes by time of day, with defined peak and off-peak windows.
- A demand component. Many commercial tariffs also charge for capacity: a line tied to the site’s highest draw in a billing period. One short evening when everything runs at once can set that part of the bill for the whole period.
- Flat structures exist too. Some tariffs have neither feature, and then there is no peak to plan around.
Averages hide all of this. For scale, the U.S. EIA puts average commercial electricity at 14.53 cents/kWh — a blended figure with no windows and no demand line in it. A depot planning against an average plans against a number its bill never uses.
Step Two: Shape the Load
| Move | What it does | Which part of the bill it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Shift energy in time | Sessions are scheduled into cheaper windows inside the dwell — a vehicle parked ten hours rarely needs its session in the first, dearest hours | The time-varying energy price |
| Flatten the peak | Starts are staggered and total draw is capped by load management, so the return hour stops being the site’s maximum | The demand component — and the supply limit itself |
| Price the exceptions consciously | A vehicle that must charge at peak does so by decision, because its route needs it — not because everything plugged in at once by habit | Both — it keeps the plan honest |
The mechanics — departure ranking, staggering, a site ceiling — are the scheduling discipline; the price logic tells it which hours to favour and which peak to defend.
A Worked Example, With Invented Numbers
These prices are invented to show the arithmetic; your tariff and meter data replace them. Imagine a depot with 12 vans, each taking 30 kWh overnight — 360 kWh a night. On an invented tariff, energy costs 30 cents/kWh until 10 p.m. and 12 cents after. Unmanaged, the vans return at 6 p.m. and charge at once: all 360 kWh lands in the peak window, about $108 a night, and the simultaneous draw sets the month’s demand line high. Planned, the same 360 kWh is scheduled after 10 p.m. inside the same dwell: about $43 a night, with a staggered, capped start.
The Rule That Outranks Price
A fleet’s rule hierarchy runs: readiness first, the site ceiling second, price third. A cheap night that strands a vehicle is the most expensive outcome a plan can produce, so departure order and route energy need set a floor that is never traded away; price shaping works only on the freedom left over. EVDANCE sells chargers, not a planning platform. Its EV-AC03201T dual-connector station and EV-RHDC30K-L compact DC charger both state OCPP 1.6J — the control line a fleet’s chosen platform sets output and timing through. The plan itself lives in the fleet’s tariff, dispatch data and rules; depot context is on our commercial charging page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is off-peak charging always cheaper for a fleet?
Only if your tariff prices energy by time. Some are flat but carry a demand component, where flattening the peak is the saving instead. Your tariff document says which lever your site has; the reading method is our explainer on smart charging and time-of-use tariffs.
Does a fleet need software to do this?
Not at small scale: set schedules and a site cap run the same logic by hand. A platform earns its place as counts and exceptions outgrow manual planning. EVDANCE sells no such platform.
Can price planning avoid a bigger electrical supply?
It reduces the peak draw that supply sizing is based on, which can shrink or delay an upgrade. Whether it does at your depot is a design question; the sizing method in our fleet depot sizing guide is where your installer works it out.
Related Reading
- Smart Charging and Time-of-Use Tariffs: How Scheduling Cuts EV Charging Costs
- Fleet Depot Charging: How to Size AC Chargers for Vans and Light Commercial Vehicles
- How to Plan a Workplace EV Charging Program
- How Do Commercial EV Charging Stations Work?
