Smart Charging Schedules for Yard EV Fleets

The shift to electric vehicle (EV) fleets has moved from a forward-thinking ambition to a competitive necessity. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the number of commercial electric vehicles globally surged by over 60% in 2023, a testament to the pressure organizations face to decarbonize logistics. However, making the leap from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles isn’t just about adding charging stations and swapping out assets. It requires an operational transformation—one that leverages advanced scheduling, data integration, and holistic energy management.

At the center of real, measurable decarbonization in yard environments are smart charging schedules. These schedules aren’t merely about plugging in vehicles but about leveraging grid intelligence, regulatory awareness, and predictive analytics to minimize emissions, optimize costs, reduce operational risks, and ensure compliance. Leading companies are moving beyond ad hoc charging; they’re deploying robust, adaptive charging strategies that turn challenges into strategic advantages.

In this actionable guide, we’ll demonstrate proven strategies for implementing smart charging schedules with decisive attention on decarbonization, cost efficiency, risk management, regulatory compliance, and life cycle assessments (LCAs). By the end, you’ll understand how these factors interact—and how to operationalize best practices for sustainable, future-ready fleet operations.

Why Smart Charging Schedules Matter in Yard EV Fleets

The Decarbonization Imperative

Decarbonization has moved beyond regulatory box-checking to become a central competitive driver. Major customers now demand emissions transparency across their supply chains, and investors scrutinize carbon footprints in ESG reports. For yard EV fleets, smart charging schedules allow operators to synchronize vehicle charging with periods of minimal grid carbon intensity—an approach that recent MIT research shows can shrink a fleet’s upstream greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by over 25%, compared to uncontrolled charging.

By using real-time grid intelligence, fleet operators can ensure every kilowatt-hour is as low-carbon as possible. This is crucial in regions where the electric grid’s renewable mix fluctuates hourly. With global trends accelerating—such as California’s Advanced Clean Fleets regulation mandating zero-emission vehicles for some fleets by the 2030s—smart charging becomes the lynchpin for both compliance and sustainability leadership.

Financial Optimization

For CFOs and fleet managers, electricity is a double-edged sword: a cleaner energy source, but also one with variable and sometimes unpredictable costs. EV charging, if left unmanaged, can result in demand charge spikes—making up to 40% of a facility’s electricity bill, according to McKinsey.

Smart charging schedules leverage real-time data on utility rates and grid demand, unlocking time-of-use (TOU) advantages and demand-side savings. When vehicles charge during off-peak hours (usually at night or midday depending on the region), fleets can reduce charging costs by 20–40%. Software-driven optimization continuously analyzes rate structures, ensuring cost-effective and sustainable charging windows.

Advanced systems now integrate predictive analytics, incorporating seasonal tariff changes and forecasted grid constraints, so organizations can commit to long-term savings in their energy procurement strategies. This financial foresight gives yard operations the agility to reallocate budget from energy costs to other business innovations.

Operational Advantage

Moving from legacy ICE fleets to electric models amplifies the importance of operational uptime and logistics precision. Even a single vehicle unavailable at the wrong time can disrupt schedules, delay deliveries, or force the use of less sustainable backup solutions.

Smart charging schedules employ telematics, vehicle diagnostics, and data-driven forecasting. These systems plan both the optimal time and duration for charging—factoring in everything from maintenance needs to upcoming dispatches. Predictive maintenance insights integrated with charging routines prevent battery overcharging, prolong asset life, and ensure maximum fleet availability.

Fleet managers are equipped with real-time dashboards that visualize state-of-charge (SoC), upcoming route requirements, and energy forecasts. This holistic visibility allows them to juggle inventory, labor, and charging infrastructure, minimizing bottlenecks and reducing idle fleet time. The net result: greater operational certainty and accelerated asset ROI.

Risk Management and Regulatory Compliance

The convergence of electrification and regulatory evolution creates risk, but also opportunity for proactive fleet managers. Local grid capacity constraints, escalating safety requirements, and compliance mandates—from the EU’s Fit for 55 package to California’s emissions standards—demand proven solutions.

Smart charging schedules are built to bolster compliance through robust data capture, automated reporting, and dynamic demand response participation. For example, companies adopting automated compliance reporting have slashed administrative burden by up to 70% (Deloitte, 2022). Integrated systems can instantly produce audit-ready documentation, track charge-related emissions, and adjust automatically to grid emergency signals.

Additionally, advanced schedules empower fleets to participate in utility demand response (DR) programs. By allowing grid operators to temporarily lower charging rates during stress events, fleets can tap new revenue streams and play a pivotal role in grid stability—turning compliance from a cost center into a source of value and resilience.

Decarbonization by Design: Smart Scheduling Tactics

1. Align Charging With Grid Carbon Intensity

Not every kilowatt consumed is equally clean. Grid carbon intensity—driven by renewable integration or fossil fuel reliance—varies by the minute and location. For example, in Texas, solar and wind frequently make peak contributions during specific times, while in the Northeast, natural gas still dominates.

How to Apply:

• Integrate Carbon Intensity APIs: Advanced tools like WattTime and Electricity Map provide real-time updates on grid emissions. By linking these APIs to your fleet’s charging management platform, you’re empowered to trigger charging sessions when renewable penetration is highest and emissions are lowest.

• Automate Charging Windows: Configure your system to prioritize scheduled charging during hours with the cleanest grid mix. In Montana, this might mean early-morning wind surges; in California, midday solar peaks.

• Track & Report Emissions Savings: Automated logs can quantify, for example, how charging outside of high-emission windows cut total CO2e emissions by 17% over a quarter. These records become gold for sustainability reporting, supporting both annual ESG disclosures and ad-hoc environmental audits.

Companies leading in decarbonization, like IKEA and PepsiCo, set rigorous science-based targets and use real-time charging emissions data to demonstrate compliance and progress—building both brand trust and stakeholder value.

2. Maximize Off-Peak Charging for Cost and Carbon Wins

Utilities worldwide incentivize users to shift energy consumption away from peak periods. In California, off-peak charging can cost 50–70% less per kWh than during peak hours, with the added benefit that off-peak windows often overlap with surplus renewable generation.

How to Apply:

• Time-of-Use (TOU) Integration: Deploy tools that automatically schedule charging based on your utility’s published rate periods, optimizing for lowest cost and emissions.

• Battery Buffering: For sites with stationary storage (such as Tesla Powerpacks or commercial-level battery arrays), charge these buffers during the lowest-tariff times. Then, use stored energy to power yard EVs during peak demand periods, effectively ‘virtualizing’ cheaper, cleaner electricity and reducing site-wide demand spikes.

The results can be striking. A leading US retailer reduced energy costs for their EV yard fleet by 35% over two years by combining off-peak charging and battery buffering (Retail Energy Innovation, 2023).

3. Load Balancing to Prevent Overload and Curtail Risk

As fleets scale up, simultaneous charging of dozens (or even hundreds) of vehicles can threaten grid connection limits or trigger unforeseen utility penalties—jeopardizing operations.

How to Apply:

• Deploy Smart Charging Stations: Invest in hardware and cloud-based platforms that dynamically distribute available power, managing site-level demand in real time.

• Set Vehicle Prioritization Rules: Not all vehicles have the same urgency. Advanced systems use live operational data to charge high-priority vehicles first, mirroring logistics requirements. This replaces the inefficient ‘first-in, first-out’ model and ensures critical assets are always deployment-ready.

• Monitor Real-Time Power Draw: Platforms with visualization dashboards and IoT-connected sensors alert facilities teams to potential overloads or anomalies, enabling rapid intervention. This proactive stance prevents service disruptions and supports compliance with electrical codes.

Case in point: One logistics firm averted a costly utility fine by proactively load-balancing across 60 yard tractors, despite an unexpected surge in holiday demand.

Taking smart charging from “better schedules” to a yard energy operating system

Demand charges, transformer limits, and why unmanaged charging breaks your budget

Most yard electrification projects fail financially for one boring reason. The site hits a new monthly peak. The utility bill locks in a demand charge you carry for the full billing cycle.

Demand charges are not a rounding error.

NREL notes demand charges often land in the 30%–70% range for commercial customers, depending on rate design and load shape. nrel.gov+2NREL Docs+2

That means your “one bad hour” can cost more than your total energy use for days.

A simple example you can reuse in internal approvals

Your yard has a 1,200 kW monthly peak.

The tariff demand charge is €18 per kW-month (rates vary, but this is a realistic order of magnitude for many large commercial tariffs).

Your monthly demand charge becomes 1,200 × 18 = €21,600.

If unmanaged charging pushes your peak to 1,650 kW for 15 minutes, your demand charge becomes €29,700.

You just added €8,100 to the bill for a short spike, before counting the kWh energy charge.

What causes that spike in yards

• Shift change plug-ins. Everyone plugs in at once.

• “Fast-first” behavior. Operators grab the highest-power dispenser because it feels safer.

• Cold weather preconditioning. Vehicles pull more power, longer.

• Charger ramp behavior. Some sites see short bursts at start-up that set the peak.

The fixes that work in the real world

• Put a hard site cap in software. The moment the yard hits the cap, the system allocates power across chargers instead of letting the site peak run away.

• Stage charging starts. Delay some sessions by 5–20 minutes. This often cuts the peak without changing the final state-of-charge by departure.

• Prefer longer, lower-power depot charging when dwell time allows. RMI found slow charging can reduce a depot’s peak load by as much as a third versus higher-power patterns, and it can also reduce needed interconnection size. RMI

• Use batteries for peak clipping when your rate structure makes it pay. Even a modest battery can shave the few hours that set the month’s peak.

Charging is a dispatch problem, your schedule should look like one

If your schedule is just “charge at night,” you will still get failures.

You need dispatch-grade rules that reflect how yards actually run.

Start with three inputs you can trust

• Required energy by next duty cycle (kWh needed).

• Time available until the vehicle must be ready (minutes to departure).

• Charger constraints (which plugs fit, max kW per port, shared cabinet limits).

Then add two inputs that prevent headaches

• Minimum state-of-charge buffers for disruption days, weather, and unplanned moves.

• Maintenance and battery health constraints, including avoiding daily “100% then sit” where possible.

A practical priority rule that works

• Calculate urgency = energy needed ÷ time remaining.

• Charge the highest urgency vehicles first.

• Re-run priorities every 5–15 minutes, or when a vehicle arrives, disconnects, or a dispatch time changes.

This simple logic beats “first in, first out” because it aligns energy flow to operational risk. It also gives you a clean explanation for auditors and internal stakeholders.

Turn flexibility into revenue, without risking fleet readiness

Smart charging can pay you back twice. First through lower bills. Second through grid programs that pay for flexibility.

Where the money comes from

• Demand response. You reduce or pause charging during grid stress events.

• Capacity and ancillary services in some markets, if you can respond fast and prove performance.

• Local utility “make-ready” incentives, managed charging programs, and pilot tariffs.

Vehicle-grid integration is now treated as a strategic lever by regulators and energy agencies, because EV load is controllable and can act like mobile storage when bidirectional systems exist. The Department of Energy's Energy.gov

How to participate without operational regret

• Only offer “soft kW,” meaning power you can curtail while still hitting your departure targets.

• Put minimum charge guarantees into your logic. Example: every critical unit must reach 80% by 05:30, no exceptions.

• Create a “DR mode” schedule that activates automatically, then returns to normal with catch-up charging.

If you want a concrete number to cite in internal discussions, V2G economics work has shown meaningful per-vehicle revenue potential in specific service markets. NREL summarized revenue estimates for fleet buses providing regulation services that can reach into the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per vehicle per year in certain scenarios. NREL Docs You should treat this as market-specific, not guaranteed. But it is enough to justify running pilots where rules allow it.

Bidirectional charging: start with vehicle-to-building before you chase vehicle-to-grid

Bidirectional is attractive, but it is easy to oversell. Most yards should start with vehicle-to-building (V2B) use cases. You control the site. You control the risk.

High-value V2B yard loads

• Gate systems and access control.

• Lighting for night shifts.

• Control rooms, weighbridges, and basic IT.

• Safety systems that must stay alive during outages.

The standards are real and maturing

• ISO 15118-20 defines communication requirements that support bidirectional power transfer. ISO+1

• Interoperability on the charger-backend side is commonly handled through protocols like OCPP, designed to allow multi-vendor charging hardware to talk to central systems. Open Charge Alliance

How to keep bidirectional from damaging batteries or warranties

• Limit cycling. Use bidirectional power only during outages, short peaks, or specific paid events.

• Set floor and ceiling state-of-charge limits. Example: never discharge below 35%, never hold above 90% unless needed.

• Log everything. Warranty conversations get easier when you can show controlled operation.

Battery health is a scheduling variable, not a maintenance afterthought

Your charging schedule influences battery life. Battery life influences total cost of ownership. So battery health belongs inside the scheduler.

What the research says, in plain terms

• More frequent fast charging increases degradation, but the size of the effect depends heavily on chemistry and operating conditions. NREL Docs+2ScienceDirect+2

• In heavy-duty contexts, battery packs often land in the 300–500 kWh range for many truck applications, with larger packs for higher-mileage and higher-consumption duty cycles. ScienceDirect

What that means for yard operations

• Use DC fast charging for true operational need, not habit.

• Prefer lower C-rate charging when dwell time is long.

• Avoid “charge to 100% then park for hours” as your default, unless the next shift truly requires it.

• Precondition when the vehicle supports it, but schedule it so it does not create a site peak.

If you want a hard-dollar angle for leadership, recent research has shown that extreme fast-charging patterns can create very large replacement-cost outcomes for some chemistries under aggressive scenarios, while other chemistries perform far better. This is exactly why you write charging rules that match your fleet’s battery mix, not generic advice. ScienceDirect

Compliance and reporting: build the audit trail while you charge

The best time to build compliance evidence is at the point of action. Charging systems already produce the needed telemetry. You just need to store it in audit-friendly form.

What auditors and customers will ask you for

• kWh by vehicle, by time window.

• Proof of tariff periods applied, including exceptions reminders and manual overrides.

• Emissions accounting approach for electricity.

For Scope 2 electricity accounting, the GHG Protocol distinguishes location-based and market-based methods. You should decide which you will report, then align your data capture to it. GHG Protocol+1

In the EU, sustainability reporting requirements and standards have been evolving, including updates and “quick fix” amendments to reporting standards for companies already reporting. This matters because your charging logs can become primary evidence in sustainability disclosures. Finance Also note the policy direction can shift. Recent reporting suggests the EU has been negotiating changes that narrow which companies fall under certain sustainability reporting duties. That increases the value of customer-driven data requests, because large customers may still demand detailed emissions data from suppliers even when the supplier is not legally required to publish it. Reuters+1

What to store, minimum viable

• Session-level logs: start time, end time, kWh, max kW, charger ID, vehicle ID.

• Site peak log: 15-minute interval demand for the full month.

• Carbon intensity factor used, and its source.

• Exception log: who overrode the schedule, why, and for how long.

Infrastructure planning: match charger power to dwell time, not anxiety

Yard projects routinely overspend on power. They buy high-kW chargers everywhere. Then they pay for grid upgrades they do not need.

Better approach

• Map dwell time by asset class. Yard tractors often have predictable idle windows. Spotters and forklifts differ.

• Use depot charging for most energy, then reserve high power for true mid-shift needs.

• Use evidence from heavy-duty charging analysis: NREL has found off-shift charging below 350 kW can supply a significant share of energy demand across operating segments, while megawatt-level speeds become relevant when you must charge mid-shift fast. NREL Docs

This ties back to scheduling. If you can schedule well, you can buy less peak power. If you buy less peak power, you often cut the interconnection scope.

A practical implementation path you can run in any yard

Week 1 to 2: Baseline and constraints

• Pull 60–90 days of interval meter data.

• Identify your top 5 monthly peaks and what caused them.

• List each vehicle’s required readiness times and typical dwell windows.

• Confirm tariffs. Get the exact demand charge rules and time windows.

Week 3 to 6: Pilot with controls

• Start with 10–20% of fleet.

• Set a site power cap that stays below your typical peak by 10–20%.

• Run urgency-based prioritization.

• Track two KPIs daily: missed readiness events, and peak kW.

Week 7 to 12: Expand, then add market signals

• Scale to full fleet.

• Add TOU rate inputs.

• Add carbon intensity timing where relevant. MIT work has shown the time of day can materially change charging emissions, including reported cases where midday charging in California reduced emissions by more than 40% versus night charging, because of solar-heavy generation during midday. MIT News

• Test demand response participation with strict guardrails.

Month 4 onward: Harden for uptime and audits

• Add redundancy. Define what happens when the internet drops, when a charger fails, or when a vehicle does not plug in.

• Set data retention and reporting outputs for customers and auditors.

• Formalize energy management processes if you are pursuing standards like ISO 50001, which centers on structured energy management systems and continual improvement of energy performance. ISO

Conclusion: what “good” looks like when you do this right

A smart charging schedule is not a calendar. It is an operating system for energy, cost control, and readiness.

When you implement it properly, you should be able to show outcomes like these, depending on tariffs and duty cycle

• Lower charging cost through managed charging. RMI reports fleets can save up to 30% in charging costs by charging during off-peak hours in studied cases, and it can drive large cost-per-mile gaps versus diesel. RMI

• Lower peaks and fewer grid upgrade surprises by aligning power levels to dwell time and controlling concurrency.

• Cleaner electricity use where your grid mix changes materially by hour, with measurable emissions differences tied to timing. MIT News

• Audit-ready logs that support Scope 2 methods and customer reporting expectations. GHG Protocol+1

Yard archetypes: three scheduling playbooks you can copy

Use these archetypes to pick charger power, set your site cap, and write scheduling rules that match how your yard actually runs. Demand charges vary wildly. Some businesses see under $4 per kW-month, others see nearly $30, and some locations exceed $50. NREL Docs+1

Archetype 1: Port drayage depot, return-to-base, high daily energy

What your yard looks like

• You run Class 8 drayage tractors that cycle between port terminals, DCs, rail ramps, and customer sites.

• Your trucks come home in waves. You get plug-in spikes after gate cutoffs, shift changes, and appointment clusters.

• You face real grid constraints near ports. Charger siting and feeder capacity can decide your timeline. RMI+1

• You operate in a market where drayage scale is massive. San Pedro Bay ports alone estimate roughly 14,000 to 20,000 drayage trucks as a rough fleet need, which is why power planning gets political fast. portoflosangeles.org

Numbers you can plan around

• Average tractive energy need for drayage can land around 338 kWh per truck per day in a real port region study. NREL Docs

• Electricity from the meter must exceed tractive energy because you lose energy in charging and power electronics. Measured charging losses can range up to the mid-teens in real measurements, depending on conditions and state of charge. ScienceDirect

• A simple planning assumption for early-stage design is 10%–15% overhead for losses and auxiliary loads, then refine with your own telematics and charger logs. ScienceDirect

A concrete sizing example you can reuse internally

• Fleet: 30 drayage tractors.

• Daily tractive energy: 30 × 338 kWh ≈ 10.1 MWh per day. NREL Docs

• Add 15% overhead for charging losses and auxiliaries, your meter energy target is about 11.6 MWh per day. ScienceDirect

• If you have a 10-hour home window, you need about 1.16 MW average charging power across the site in that window.

Charger mix that usually fits

• Base-load depot charging as your default. 12 to 20 chargers in the 60 to 150 kW range, sized to your dwell time and staggered starts. This keeps you from building a megawatt-class peak you do not need on day one.

• A small number of high-power units for disruption days. 2 to 4 higher-power chargers for late arrivals, missed plugs, or unexpected second turns. Treat these as exception tools, not your daily plan.

Why this mix works.

Depot dwell time gives you flexibility. Research on depot charging for medium and heavy-duty vehicles has found that off-shift charging power levels like 16, 23, and 103 kW per vehicle can be sufficient in many cases, far below what most teams assume on day one. IEA Blob Storage+1

Scheduling rules that keep you out of trouble

• Put a hard site cap in software. Start conservative. Raise it only when your logs prove you can.

• Use urgency-based prioritization. Urgency = kWh needed before next dispatch ÷ minutes to departure. Re-rank every 5 to 15 minutes, and on every plug-in or dispatch change.

• Stage session start times to prevent a single 15-minute spike from setting your monthly peak.

• Reserve fast charging for exceptions only. If a truck arrives late, your system should use high power briefly, then drop it back into the site cap pool.

• Design for “no plug” reality. Build rules that assume a percentage of trucks will not plug in on time. Your schedule should recover automatically, not rely on perfect behavior.

Demand charge example you can put in your business case

• Scenario. Your base facility load sits around 1,250 kW during your charging window. You have 10 depot chargers rated at 150 kW.

• Unmanaged outcome. Everyone plugs in at once, 10 chargers ramp up. Charging load hits 1,500 kW. Site demand hits 2,750 kW.

• Managed outcome. You set a site charging cap of 750 kW. Site demand stays near 2,000 kW.

• Monthly cost difference. The unmanaged peak is 750 kW higher. At $20 per kW-month, that is $15,000 per month in extra demand charges from one bad peak. NREL Docs+1

What to track so you can prove control

• Missed readiness events, count and root cause.

• Monthly peak kW, and the exact 15-minute interval that set it.

• kWh delivered per truck per day, and percent delivered in off-peak windows.

• Exception charging minutes, because this predicts when you will need more plugs.

Archetype 2: Scrap yard spotter fleet, terminal tractors, high idle, short moves

What your yard looks like

• You run terminal tractors or spotters all day. They shuttle trailers, roll-offs, bins, and loads inside your site.

• Duty cycles include frequent stops and starts, and lots of idle time waiting on weighbridges, cranes, shears, or loading.

• Your yard’s process equipment already creates peaks. EV charging must stay “in the gaps,” not add a new peak on top of the shredder day.

Numbers you can plan around

• Many electric yard tractors offer modular battery sizes in the 104 to 312 kWh range, depending on model and duty needs. truckinginfo.com+1

• Real deployments often do not need extreme charger power. A commonly cited yard-truck approach is standard charging around 22 kW for 1 to 2 shift operations, and around 70 kW for 3 shift operations, far below typical over-the-road fast charging discussions. midamericafreight.org+2drivecleanindiana.org+2

Charger mix that usually fits

• Default: shared “standard” chargers. 22 kW chargers placed where trucks already stop. Plan for shared use. You do not need one charger per truck in many yards. wicleancities.org+1

• One recovery charger. A 70 kW unit for catch-up when a truck misses plug time or you hit a high-volume day. drivecleanindiana.org+1

• Optional: a few AC Level 2 units for site pickups and small service vehicles, so they do not steal DC ports. NREL Docs

Scheduling rules that work in scrap yards

• Make “opportunity charging” your default behavior. Plug during existing downtime: scale queues, lunch, shift changes, trailer staging. Do not wait for end-of-shift unless your dwell time is guaranteed. wicleancities.org

• Use a strict site cap that accounts for process equipment. If your shear or shredder ramps, your charger power must step down automatically.

• Prioritize by next operational constraint, not by arrival order. Charge the unit assigned to the next outbound move first.

• Keep a minimum state-of-charge floor for safety and dispatch stability.

• Enforce plug compliance. Most failures come from humans, not hardware. Use simple alarms: “truck parked in charging bay, not charging.”

Demand charge example that matches this archetype

• Scenario. Your yard already peaks at 800 kW from operations. You add 10 yard trucks. You allow a combined EV charging cap of 360 kW, such as a mix of standard and recovery charging.

• Outcome. Your site peak becomes 1,160 kW instead of 800 kW. The added peak is 360 kW.

• Monthly cost. If your demand charge is $12 per kW-month, that is $4,320 per month tied to that added peak. If you instead let charging run unmanaged and it pushes an extra 400 kW above your cap on a busy day, that is another $4,800 per month at the same tariff. NREL Docs+1

What to track in scrap yards

• Plug compliance rate, percent of parked time connected.

• kWh per move or kWh per hour of operation, to spot mechanical or operator issues.

• Peak overlap minutes, how often EV charging overlaps with your process peaks.

• Charger fault minutes, because one dead port can cascade into missed readiness.

Archetype 3: Industrial manufacturing yard, mixed fleet, forklifts plus yard vehicles

What your yard looks like

• You run a mix of yard tractors, forklifts, tuggers, and service vehicles.

• Production loads often set your peak, not the yard fleet.

• Your biggest risk is coincidence. EV charging ramps during the same hour your plant ramps.

Numbers you can plan around

• Forklifts already look like managed charging loads. Typical forklift input demand often lands around 7.6 to 30 kW. California Air Resources Board

• Many operations run two 8-hour shifts on a single battery and charger because the truck is typically in use only about half the time. California Air Resources Board

• Forklift battery scale varies by class. Many Class 1 forklifts operate at 36 V, 48 V, or 80 V. California Air Resources Board Heavy electric forklifts can use battery sets in the 149 to 330 kWh range in some configurations. kalmarusa.com

Charger mix that usually fits

• Keep forklifts on their own charging plan. Do not let forklift charging compete with truck charging unless you have excess capacity. Forklifts tend to have predictable work-rest patterns, which makes them ideal for staggered charging. California Air Resources Board

• Give yard tractors dedicated ports, but keep power moderate unless duty forces higher. Use depot-style power levels first, then add faster only where a shift truly requires it. IEA Blob Storage+1

• Add one site-level controller that sees all loads. If you manage chargers in silos, you will still peak the meter.

Scheduling rules that keep production safe

• Set two caps, not one. A plant cap for total site demand. A yard cap inside it for all EV charging combined.

• Use a “production priority calendar.” If your plant has known ramp hours, schedule EV charging to back off automatically in those windows.

• Treat forklifts as a flexible load, then protect critical truck readiness. Forklifts often have more slack because they cycle between use and idle. California Air Resources Board

• Keep a ratchet watchlist. Many demand charge designs include seasonal peaks and ratchets where billing demand can stay tied to a past maximum. That means one extreme day can raise bills for months. eta-publications.lbl.gov+1

Demand charge example that shows why coincidence matters

• Scenario. Your plant already peaks at 4,500 kW. You add EV charging that can hit 500 kW if unmanaged.

• Cost impact. At $10 per kW-month, a 500 kW increase adds $5,000 per month, or $60,000 per year. In a high-demand-charge area at $50 per kW-month, the same 500 kW adds $25,000 per month. NREL Docs+1

What to track in mixed yards

• Coincidence factor, how often EV charging overlaps with your top 10 plant demand intervals.

• Readiness by asset class, trucks, forklifts, and support vehicles tracked separately.

• Charger utilization by hour, so you can shift load without starving operations.

• Maintenance triggers, because rising kWh per hour on forklifts can signal tire, hydraulic, or operator issues. California Air Resources Board