What is load management?

Load management keeps many chargers below the limit of one connection by dividing the available power. Cars that stand for hours still get the energy they need.

Explained in

Load management · Stop 01Why can't every car charge at full power?Twenty charge points of 11 kW, but only 80 kW for charging: why connections are smaller than the sum of the chargers, and why that rarely matters.

A car that stands for nine hours does not need 11 kW; it needs enough kWh by the evening. Load management turns a peak into a plateau: the same energy, spread over the time the cars stand anyway. The units behind this are explained in eMobility and EV basics, stop 04.

From “Energy matters more than power”, stop 01

Terms

  1. Load managementShares a site's grid connection between the cars charging at the same time.
  1. What is the difference between static and dynamic load management?Static load management gives each charge point a fixed share. Dynamic load management measures the building and gives the chargers whatever room is left at each moment.
  2. Can the grid operator limit my wallbox?In Germany, non-public charge points above 4.2 kW put into operation since 2024 count as controllable devices. The grid operator may reduce them temporarily to prevent overload, but at least 4.2 kW remains.
  3. Why does a single-phase car matter for load management?A single-phase car draws all its current from one phase. Several of them on the same phase can overload it, so sites use phase rotation and count each phase.
  4. What does an OCPP charging profile look like?A SetChargingProfile message with a purpose (ceiling, default or one session), a kind, and a schedule of periods with a limit in amperes per phase or watts. The deep dive reads the profiles of one morning and the meter value that shows the car following.