Charged and chilling? That’s fine for Netflix. Not for a busy EV charging station

One of the main operational issues observed across charging networks as electric vehicles (EVs) grow more and more popular is the cars idling at charging stations for hours once they are charged. The plugged-in idling affects battery life, and charger efficiency, and causes unnecessary delays at charging stations in addition to consuming electricity. In crowded areas like fleet depots or public charging stations, behavior directly causes hold-ups, limited charger availability, and finally revenue loss.

Why this Matters

Although this issue is present in all charging networks, fleet applications are where it is most noticeable. Drivers, depot employees, or security personnel usually manage the departure in fleet operations. Cars wait longer than necessary to be charged when there is no direct accountability, which prevents other waiting cars from using chargers.

Scheduling and energy cost management may suffer greatly as a result of this misalignment. Delivery delays or charging during expensive times can result from a single delay that spreads to entire dispatch plans. According to research by Wolbertus et al. (2018), these inefficiencies can reduce the use of charging infrastructure by up to 30% during peak hours, which is a major drawback for fleet operations that depend on time.

Public charging infrastructure is also harmed by idle plug-in use, particularly in densely populated urban areas. Even though a charger may appear to be available through apps, cars that have already completed their charging session frequently prevent it from being physically available. This reduces widespread EV use and damages the trust in charging services. It is also inconvenient, time-consuming, and wasteful of infrastructure.

Smart Solutions to Curb Overstay

Hardware manufacturers and payment systems are creating a variety of models to deter extended charger use. Among these are time penalties, dynamic charges based on traffic congestion, and adaptive models that impose harsher penalties on repeat offenders.

Studies on behavior, like Inducing Human Behavior to Reduce Overstay at PEV Charging Station, have shown that even a basic intervention, like dashboard alerts or app pop-ups, can influence and motivate user behavior. These interventions promote faster turnovers and ethical charger use when combined with backend processing that recognizes session ends in real time.

Smart Scheduling and Automation: Next Step

Today's sophisticated EV fleet charging solutions go beyond scheduling. To handle charging sessions proactively, smart platforms nowadays incorporate energy demand prediction, route planning, and vehicle readiness. It includes defining autonomous disconnect alerts, putting appropriate vehicle cycling into practice, and incorporating these controls into the charging management system (CMS).

Advanced implementations may automatically dispatch charged vehicles and route them to inactive bays using automated charging systems, such as those described in Optimal Operation and Planning of a Robotic Charging System to Alleviate Overstay (IEEE). Innovations like these lessen the need for human intervention and are particularly advantageous for night shifts or unmanned depots.

Building Balanced and Effective Curbing Models

The goal of penalty system design is optimization, not enforcement. Penalty models must take arrival time and energy demand uncertainty into account, as demonstrated by the optimization process used to solve overstay in PEV charging station planning. Operators can make the most of the current infrastructure without having to upgrade at a significant cost thanks to systems with this type of planning, which provide fairness and maintain high throughput.

Maximizing Drive, Maximizing ROI

Reducing stand time at chargers improves operational effectiveness, lowers power costs, and maximizes infrastructure utilization. This results in more consistent charging expenses reduced labor overhead, and on-time schedules for fleet operators. These days, real-time monitoring, overstay detection, penalty modeling, and dynamic scheduling modules should all be included in charging management software.

Driving Efficiency: Automation and Smart Tariffs Standardization

Public perception of best practices for charging, such as unplugging when finished, will inevitably improve as the world's growing EV adoption improves. However, awareness will not become habitual, so automated sanction systems must be incorporated into EV depot charging systems. They focus on fostering an efficient and standardized culture rather than enforcing penalties. By promoting greater charger usage, operational efficiency, and demand forecasting, automating best practices in charging establishes the habits required to reach the level of resilience required for an industry to thrive.

Additionally, idleness is discouraged by the use of duration-based tariffs, which charge users per minute on charge after the charging condition is complete. Timely unplugging will be encouraged by the implementation of a default connection fee that is activated the moment an automobile is plugged in, regardless of whether anything is being charged. By redefining charging costs, smart tariff structures ensure optimal charger availability and efficiency in the EV market by turning a static cost into a dynamic influence that drives behavioral change.

Just because your EV’s battery is full doesn’t mean it should stay for dessert.