Does your company have one or more charging stations in the employee or customer parking lot? Then you can open these charging stations to the public so that visitors can charge for a fee. This allows you to create an interesting revenue model around your charging infrastructure! Discover here how to get started in just a few steps. Additionally, you can also download our simulation sheet, so you can immediately see what your charging plaza can earn you.
Read more in this blog article about how to best set up such a revenue model!
1. Map the costs of your charging infrastructure
Electricity cost: How much does your company pay per kWh to the energy supplier? Be sure to consider the capacity tariff, if applicable for your company. The cost per kWh paid to your energy supplier will form a direct basis for the charging tariff you will apply.
CPO management fees: It is possible that your Charge Point Operator (CPO) charges a fee per charging session. You should check this with the CPO and include it in your total calculation.
Total investment cost: Determine how much the total investment per charge point was. This includes hardware cost, installation cost, and any options or additional works. Knowing the total cost helps estimate the payback period of your investment.
Monthly services: What is the monthly cost of optional services for your charge point(s), if your company has subscribed to monthly services?
Maintenance contracts: If you have a maintenance contract or SLA with your charge point provider, you can also include these costs.
2. Calculate Your Revenue Model
We strongly recommend making several estimates, from low to high occupancy of the charge point. In this example, we use averages from our data of all charge points under our management. To make a more accurate estimate for your own charge points, you can calculate averages by dividing the total kWh charged by the number of sessions over a specific period.
(a) Number of days that public charging will take place
The situation differs from company to company and from location to location. At some companies, for example, the parking lot is not accessible to visitors during the weekend. In other cases, the charging points are mainly used by employees during the work week, leaving few or no points available. For example, are you a retailer with your own customer parking lot? Then you will probably notice that one day is busier than another.
Therefore, it is important to make a realistic estimate of the number of days per year on which the charging points will effectively be used by the public.
Concrete example:
To illustrate, we take the situation of a company that has a publicly accessible parking lot. The parking lot is only open during the work week, so we can assume that there will certainly be no public charging on 104 days (52 weeks x 2 days). This means that 261 days remain where public charging can occur. If we then assume that public charging will effectively take place on 80% of those 261 days, this results in approximately 209 days on which public charging will occur.
(b) kWh per charging session
Our data shows that on average 30 kWh is charged per session. This figure can be used as the average consumption per session. Of course, this may vary by company, location, and the power of the charge point. In a shorter time span, more kWh may be charged if, for example, DC fast chargers are available for third parties. If you already have charge points, you can calculate the average kWh per session for a more accurate calculation.
(c) Occupancy of your charge point (kWh charged per day)
You can then make a low, medium, and high estimate of how many sessions will occur per day. A 30 kWh session takes about 2h50 on an 11 kW charge point and 1h25 on a 22 kW charge point. Not only the power of the charge point affects the number of sessions, but also how long visitors or clients stay. A realistic estimate is important.
Here is a general reference framework, since this will differ from company to company:
| kWh charged per day | |
| Low occupancy | 1 session/day = 30 kWh/day |
| Medium occupancy | 3 sessions/day = 90 kWh/day |
| High occupancy | 5 sessions/day = 150 kWh/day |
(4) Desired Revenue per kWh
From a number of samples in Antwerp, we find that the average price per kWh at an AC charging station is around €0.42 / kWh. It is strongly advised not to use exorbitant charging rates to keep your public charging station attractive to third parties so that you can maximize occupancy. You can best choose to optimize your public charging rate by weighing different tariff models against each other.
When you have an energy contract where the electricity price is €0.22 / kWh, you can, for example, use a public charging rate of €0.50 / kWh, thereby realizing a revenue of €0.28 / kWh.
(5) Formula to Calculate Revenue
Now we can put all the previous data into a general formula with which we can calculate the potential earnings:
Formula:
Concrete example with medium occupancy:
[(209 days) x (90 kWh per day)] x [€0,28 per kWh]
= €5.266,80 per year
From this calculation, you can see that with medium occupancy, you can realize a revenue of more than €5,000 on an annual basis! This annual revenue immediately covers the purchase and installation of most models of AC charging stations. With this formula, you can optimize with different rates, different degrees of occupancy, and other parameters to ultimately arrive at a desirable rate.
3. Simulation Table
We developed a handy Excel tool containing all necessary formulas. You can instantly see potential revenues under different scenarios.
You can adjust your desired tariff or occupancy (sessions per day and/or number of days per year) to what is realistic for your company.
4. Additional tips
Reasonable price setting
Setting a reasonable, market-conform charging rate on your public charging station is important. You can base this on the charging rates of other public charging points in your area via the live map of public charging points (STROOHM live map or ex-Pluginvest live map).
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Occupancy, convenience, and other variables can also influence the pricing of your charging rate. For example, a charging station in a parking lot right in the middle of a village can charge a higher rate than one in a parking lot located among fields, outside the city or village center.
Visibility of your charge point
Ensure that your charging station is clearly indicated at your location! You can do this by applying eye-catching branding or placing a signage board nearby.
You can also bring extra attention to the charging station by placing it on your company’s website or posting it on your business's social media. This also puts the spotlight on your company's commitment to sustainability.
Transparency of charging rates
According to the AFIR regulation , you are also obliged to publish the charging rates of each individual charging station online. At STROOHM (and formerly Pluginvest), this can be set up for your charging point(s) by one of our charging station experts. This makes the charging rate visible to everyone in the various charging station applications and platforms. This prevents unpleasant surprises for drivers who want to come and charge at your station(s), which can also lead to the retention of those charging station users.
5. Additional revenue through e-Credits
In addition to the traditional revenue model via charging rates, your company may also be able to generate additional income on your charging stations via e-Credits. However, some conditions apply to get the maximum benefit from this. Be sure to take a look at blog article about e-Credits for more information.
Conclusion
Through this preliminary study, you get a better view of what income you can generate by opening your charging stations to the public and setting your own charging rate. From this, it becomes clear not only over what period you can roughly recover the investment in the charging infrastructure, but also what profits you can achieve with this in the longer term.
Do you have any questions about operating charging stations publicly in your business or customer parking lot? Then be sure to contact one of our experts viainfo@stroohm.com or by phone at +32 3 349 26 49.