€150 for participating in research in "flexible electric vehicle charging"

DC999

ESB have partnered with some crowd who are offering 500 people with EVs a €150 voucher. My Nissan Leaf isn't a supported car for some reason, so no good to me. Blurb from no-reply@btp.esbnetworks.ie earlier said 'Are you an electric vehicle driver?

A company called FlexCharging, with the support of ESB Networks, is conducting research to understand the role “flexible electric vehicle charging” can play in Ireland. If you would like to learn how to take part in this study and receive a €150 voucher, click below.'

https://ireland.flexcharging.com/

SD_DRACULA

Sure, as long as my schedule is always between 2 and 5am 😂

the_amazing_raisin

Worth noting that you get the voucher after 12 months

I wonder how they controls the cats charging schedule. I'm tempted to sign up just to see how it works

Also, where's the voucher for? Hope it isn't Golden Discs 😂

jkforde

they want access to my VW account via another crowd called Smartcar... too many security breach red flags me thinks!

alfa_aficionado

Went through the signup process as felt I could limit the data sharing - I only allowed “Vehicle Charging Management” which, according to Tesla, allows access to:

1. Vehicle charging history
2. Billed amount
3. Charging location
4. Commands to schedule / start / stop charging

all seem relevant to what they are trying to do but not enough - they want me to allow full access!

So they can forget about it - talk about data harvesting.

unkel

What are those events that you need to take part in at least 50% of? I hope it is not any paid for public charging as I rarely do that, almost all my one day trips are under about 330km which the car can do without charging. With any overnight trip I pretty much always charge for free overnight

And even if they could control my home charging (they can't of course), that's fine, but I will be sending them a massive bill if they charge even 1 unit outside of the 2AM to 5AM slot that costs 5c / kWh 😁

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122170347#Comment_122170347

I believe they're remotely controlling the charging timers on your car

They said something about being able to charge a certain number of kilowatt hours per night, not sure if you can select a particular time

I imagine it'll be when prices are cheapest anyway, since that's usually when there's plenty of spare electricity on the grid

Fingleberries

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122167570#Comment_122167570

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122162362#Comment_122162362

Unfortunately, yeah. I see too many red flags and hear alarm bells on the amount of data they want access to. Even if it's legit, I'm out.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122170451#Comment_122170451

Ah ok, the charging timers on the car. They don't really work very well in Teslas anyway 😂

What are they trying to accomplish here? They don't even know who my electricity provider is, let alone what plan I am on. Starting to interfere with people's home charging without that knowledge can turn ugly very quickly if it causes people to overpay.

graememk

@DC999 I've changed the title to describe what your were actually talking about 😂

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122171204#Comment_122171204

They work even worse on VWs, I'm tempted to sign up just to see what happens 😂

Since it's in partnership with ESBN, I assume it's to demonstrate that EV charging can be controlled dynamically by the network provider

There's some value in that, for example it's probably better for load shedding to throttle EV charging than turn off people's heating

I still reckon dynamic tariffs are a much easier and more effective way to influence charging behaviour

Maybe this will lead into dynamic tariffs, they need to demonstrate some easy way for EV owners to charge at cheaper times and still guarantee a certain number of kilowatt hours delivered. Personally I'd rather my own automation, but I appreciate not every car owner is interested in that

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122171340#Comment_122171340

There's 150 blips on the sonar!!! 😂

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122171363#Comment_122171363

I was confused there for a moment. Did I just post all this? 😁

Agree completely with all of that. And that's also exactly why I signed up. Can't bloody wait for the first provider to offer flexible tariffs. Come on, Octopus Energy. You are very successful in the UK. Expand your market to here, please!

SouthWesterly

How do they know I don't have the car listed?

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122171919#Comment_122171919

You have to give them permissions to your car's app/api

idc

Is that not what 150 euro is for — eg you normally charge car at 5c. but due to this scheme one day you charge from 5-7pm at some stupid 30c+ rate. either that or they should of offered 150 PLUS compensation for any charging done outside your normal charging rat period.

Easiest for people on a 24hr rate as then it will make no difference when they charge!

No use to me anyway as neither of my cars on the list!

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122173756#Comment_122173756

That's interesting, although I wonder how they'd track your "normal" usage

Might work well for me on the old D/N rates, since they'll probably just move the charging times around within that

Can't imagine ESBN will be in a hurry to start EV chargers at 6pm during peak rates, for example

idc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122173860#Comment_122173860

I assume as they seem to be getting major access to your online accounts associated with specific car brands they could see that yes for the preceding X weeks you only ever charged between 2-6 am due to being on plan A from supplier Y — that assumes the various online car brands store that sort of information.

ELM327

Got this, no interest at all in sharing my data or allowing someone else to control when I charge.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122174665#Comment_122174665

Neither have I, but I do have an interest in getting a free €150 😁 But seriously, this shortens the pay back period of my current systems and / or frees up cash for any new investments in going even more renewable.

And big bonus if participating helps bring forward flexible electricity tariffs in Ireland. Or at least a pilot project. Ireland is, as usual, years behind.

Duine_Eigin

I emailed them earlier this week to seek clarification on whether my car would be charged outside of Pinergy's 2-5am EV rate. See their response below. Looks like they only want to stop charging sessions during peak events.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122177100#Comment_122177100

Sounds great, €150 for doing absolutely nothing

Not convinced about the amount of data access they're asking for, that's my main reservation