New default charge schedule time

We’ve made changes to our default charge schedule

Posted by David: Feb 17, 2023 • 2 min read

We’ve updated the default charge schedule time so Pod Point customers can keep their EVs charged when the grid’s carbon intensity is lowest.

Back in 2021, we released the Charge Scheduling feature on the Pod Point App. This allowed customers to set a custom schedule that aligns with their charging behaviours, as well as take advantage of dual-rate energy tariffs to charge when electricity is cheapest and/or greenest.

The following year, the UK Government released a new set of regulations mandating that chargepoints have greater smart functionality. This included the ability to charge an electric vehicle (EV) at times when grid demand is lower, or when more renewable electricity is available.

To comply with these regulations, we made some further changes to our chargepoints and the app, including the new default charge schedule.

So, what have we changed, and why?

We’ve tweaked the schedule slightly to the following times:

  • Monday to Friday - now between 00:00 and 05:00 (formerly 00:00 and 07:00)
  • Saturday and Sunday - all day (the same as the original schedule)

As for why, we did some research into carbon intensity. Using data from National Grid ESO, we found that the most CO2 friendly time to charge an EV falls between midnight and 5am, as this graph shows:

Graph showing the average CO2 intensity at each hour of the day

Note that this is an average for the whole of the UK. Even so, adjusting the default schedule time to between 00:00 and 05:00 means our customers can charge their EVs when the grid is at its greenest.

Who does the new schedule affect?

The new timings only affect new Pod Point customers who purchased, installed and linked their Solo 3 home charger to their account for the first time on or after the 31st January.

Home chargers installed prior to this date won’t be affected, meaning customers who use the original default schedule, or a custom schedule, won’t be impacted.

So if your home charger was linked to the app before the 31st January and you want to change the default schedule to match the greenest times, on average, you could change it to between 00:00 and 05:00.

Remind me, what’s this default schedule?

This was a new feature mandated by the Electric Vehicle (Smart Charge Point) Regulations.

Essentially, chargepoints have to include a pre-configured off-peak default charge schedule. This only applies when the chargepoint is linked to your Pod Point App account via Wi-Fi for the first time.

Outside of the default times, EVs plugged in won’t charge unless the schedule gets overridden, such as by an app or using the car’s in-built scheduling feature.

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