Battery, EVSE and HVAC optimization
Shift battery use, EV charging and heat pump operation to cheaper hours, one device type at a time.
→ Overview
Battery optimization, EVSE optimization and HVAC optimization each plan one device type from the electricity prices of the utility rate plan. The controller calculates the plan itself, every 5 minutes, and gives the devices setpoints from it:
- Battery optimization — charges the battery at low prices and discharges it at high prices.
- EVSE optimization — charges EVs faster at low prices and slower, or not at all, at high prices.
- HVAC optimization — switches heat pumps to Boost at low prices and to Eco at high prices.
They do not change the strategy's goal or grid limits. The mode in effect (Default mode, Schedule, Negative price or Voltage regulation) still sets those, and the strategy still keeps the site within its import limit, export limit and fuses.
These three optimizations and Negative price can be combined with each other. None of them can be used together with the AI energy manager, which covers all device types at once. See AI energy manager.
→ Before you start
- The utility rate plan has buy prices for the coming hours. Without prices there is no plan and the rows are shown struck through, with the tooltip "To use AI strategy, you need to define a pricing plan". See Utility rate plan (electricity prices).
- The devices are included in the strategy as regulated devices and their control type is Auto. See Included items: what the strategy measures and controls.
- The strategy has no AI energy manager mode.
1 Add an optimization
2 Battery optimization
The controller plans the battery for the next 48 hours in 5-minute steps, as far ahead as the utility rate plan has prices. It uses the effective buy price (distributor energy + supplier buy + fee) and the effective sell price (supplier sell − fee), and stays within the Target SOC range and the battery's own SOC limits.
| Parameter | What it does | Unit / default |
|---|---|---|
| Earning optimization (battery arbitrage) → Enable | Yes: charge at low prices and discharge at high prices, from and to the grid, to maximize earnings. While this is Yes, the two cards below are greyed out and both count as Yes. | Yes / No · Yes |
| Charging battery from grid → Enable | Only when arbitrage is No. Yes – charge at low prices from the grid and PV. No – charge from PV only. | Yes / No · Yes |
| Discharge battery to grid → Enable | Only when arbitrage is No. Yes – discharge to the grid at high prices. No – discharge only to cover the site's load. | Yes / No · No |
| Capacity reserved to cover load | Part of the battery the optimization does not discharge, kept for the site's load. Same as the lower end of Target SOC range. | % · 10 · 0–99 |
| Capacity reserved for surplus (PV) production | Part of the battery the optimization does not fill, kept for surplus PV. Same as 100 % minus the upper end of Target SOC range. | % · 10 · 1–100 |
| Target SOC range | State-of-charge band the optimization works in. Drag the two handles; the two fields above follow. The battery's own Min. SOC and Max. SOC limits still apply. | % · 10–90 |
| Release when idle | Tooltip: "Release battery for regulation to other modules when price is not optimal for charging/discharging and battery setpoint is 0 kW." Yes: in periods without a planned charge or discharge, the strategy's goal controls the battery as usual, for example self-consumption. No: in those periods the battery is held at 0 kW. | Yes / No · No |
| Confirm | Closes the editor and adds or updates the Battery optimization row. Nothing is saved yet. | — |
With Release when idle on No, the battery neither charges from surplus PV nor covers the site's load in periods when prices give no reason to trade. Set it to Yes if the battery should also do self-consumption between the planned charge and discharge periods.
Without arbitrage exactly one of Charging battery from grid and Discharge battery to grid is Yes: switching one changes the other. Switching arbitrage off sets Charging battery from grid to Yes.
3 EVSE optimization
EVSE optimization has no settings. Create adds the row, and the row has only a bin icon.
The controller plans the EV charging power from now until 06:00 the next morning, using the supplier buy price of the utility rate plan. It compares each period with the average price of that window:
- clearly cheaper than average — charging at the full available power;
- around the average — charging at reduced power;
- clearly more expensive — charging slows down or pauses.
The full available power is the combined maximum power of the chargers, limited by Limit max. combined power on the strategy's Details tab. The strategy's import limit and fuses still apply.
In expensive periods the planned power can be 0 kW. A driver who needs the car soon may find it less charged than expected. Agree with the site owner which chargers this strategy controls.
4 HVAC optimization
The controller looks at the effective buy prices of the next 48 hours, takes the middle between the lowest and the highest price, and decides for each 5-minute period whether the heat pump runs in Normal, Eco, Boost or Superboost.
| Parameter | What it does | Unit / default |
|---|---|---|
| Normal → Eco | How far above the middle price the price must be before the heat pump switches to Eco. Small = 20 %, Medium = 35 %, Large = 50 % of the way from the middle to the highest price. Small switches to Eco most often. The cross clears the choice: no Eco periods. | Small / Medium / Large · none |
| Normal → Boost | How far below the middle price the price must be before the heat pump switches to Boost. Small = 20 %, Medium = 35 %, Large = 50 % of the way from the middle to the lowest price. Small switches to Boost most often. The cross clears the choice: no Boost periods. | Small / Medium / Large · none |
| Superboost mode max price | When the effective buy price is at or below this value, the heat pump runs in Superboost. Checked first, before Boost and Eco. Empty = no Superboost. | €/kWh · empty |
| Confirm | Closes the editor and updates the HVAC optimization row. Nothing is saved yet. | — |
With nothing selected and Superboost mode max price empty, the plan is Normal all the time.
The planned state replaces the state from the mode's HVAC settings only while that state is an on state (for example On, Eco or Boost). If the mode switches HVAC Off, it stays off. Some heat pumps do not support every state.
5 How the optimizations work with other modes
- The mode in effect (Voltage regulation, Negative price, Schedule or Default mode) keeps setting the goal, the grid limits and the Advanced settings. The optimization only sets the power or state of its device type.
- External EMS setpoints win over these optimizations for the same device type, and a Flexibility activation wins over both for the battery. See Flexibility and External EMS.
- When a measuring device of the strategy goes offline, the strategy falls back to safe values for the battery, PV, EV chargers and HVAC. See Voltage regulation and grid connection fallback.
6 Check the result
On the strategy's Last measurements tab, the AI agent card shows Enable ON and the current
Battery active power setpoint, EVSE active power setpoint and HVAC state setpoint from the
plans. An empty value means there is no plan for the current period.
7 Checklist
- The utility rate plan has buy and sell prices; the rows are not struck through.
- The strategy has no AI energy manager.
- Battery optimization: Target SOC range and Release when idle match what the site owner expects from the battery.
- EVSE optimization: the site owner accepts that charging can pause at high prices.
- HVAC optimization: at least one price difference or Superboost mode max price is set.
- Save was clicked, and the AI agent card shows setpoints.