Installing EV charging at your business — what it means for your energy contract
Workplace and customer EV charging changes your load shape and can push you across MPAN thresholds. Here's what to plan for before the electrician arrives.
Load shape changes materially
Workplace charging concentrates additional load during the working day; customer/destination charging often peaks evenings and weekends. Either way your existing shape will change, which affects both non-commodity charges and future quotes.
Capacity — the first hard constraint
Most sites have a headline agreed capacity in kVA. Adding a bank of chargers can push simultaneous demand toward or beyond that limit. Before installing, ask your electrician for the peak-simultaneous kW and check against your DNO capacity — an upgrade may be needed and DNO lead times can be long.
DUoS exposure — Red-band matters
Destination chargers running through weekday winter evening peaks land in the highest DUoS Red band. On pass-through contracts that shows up quickly in bills. Time-of-use control, scheduling, or a small BESS can meaningfully reduce Red-band exposure.
Talk to your supplier before you install
Some suppliers offer EV-specific tariffs or bundled propositions (hardware + energy). Even where they don't, alerting your account manager before install means quotes at your next renewal use realistic post-EV load assumptions rather than an out-of-date profile.
Ready to save?
Compare business energy prices now
Free, no-obligation quotes from our UK panel in under 60 seconds.
Get my free quote