Fjordkraft innovates in the energy management space with Enode

Fjordkraft has for a long time been the leading energy supplier in Norway with close to a million customers. But the position as market leader is something that must be earned every year, ideally by providing unprecedented value to your customers. This is exactly what Fjordkraft is doing with its energy management app, provided for free to all its customers.

The objective of the Fjordkraft app, first launched back in 2019, is to be the energy hub customers need to monitor, manage and optimize every aspect of their energy consumption. To start off, Fjordkraft added usage overview, disaggregation and complete invoice overview - the basics, provided by most energy management apps today.

Taking energy management to the next level

Fjordkraft wanted to go even further. Insights and data provided by the smart meter were not enough to deliver on the promise of helping customers use less energy. They needed something that could help their users take action, or ideally something that could automatically take action for them.

For Fjordkraft, this mission is about empowering users to take action. Both to reduce their energy bills, but also consume more green energy with less strain on the grid. Combining connections to all energy hardware in one app, with energy insights and automatic optimization, is the tool Fjordkraft wants to give their users to accomplish this. And they are adamant on delivering one of the best green energy apps the world has seen.

That was the reason they partnered with us in Enode. And even though the journey is just getting started, let us recap Fjordkraft’s progress so far.

Smart charging in a volatile energy market

Fjordkraft uses the Enode Smart Charging API to deliver a frictionless smart charging experience for end-users. The end-user only activates from their phone and enters the ready-by-time. Fjordkraft and Enode handle the rest via direct access to SoC and start/stop charging commands from the EV.

After launching an early version of the Enode API integration in the fall of 2020, Fjordkraft has since added 15 more brands to its EV integration lineup, all available for smart charging. Consumers have saved thousands of dollars by automatically charging their EV when prices are low. In fact, our data shows that Fjordkraft customers on average save 20% of all charging costs compared to non-smart charging. Win-win-win!

When the partnership started out in 2020, Norwegian electricity prices had reached a record low. On average, during the summer of 2020, a Norwegian household would pay 0.06$ per kWh. Charging a Tesla, of which there are a lot of here in Norway, had a cost of about 4$ - almost free compared to our hefty gasoline price. Smart charging at these energy prices is of course smart, as it reduces the load on the grid during peak hours, but the dollar savings for consumers was minimal.

Fast forward almost two years and the situation is crazy in comparison. Energy prices have sky-rocketed for the average consumer (all across Europe), and charging the same Tesla could now cost you around 40$ - 10x what you paid two years ago.

In this market, smart charging is a critical need for Fjordkraft’s customers. Saving 25% of 40$ = 10$ every time you charge your car is a no-brainer for most of us, including tens of thousands of EV drivers who have connected their car to the Fjordkraft app and activated smart charging.

Smart heating and demand response underway

Connection to EVs and smart charging is just the first step in the long-term energy management plan for Fjordkraft. They have already added thermostats and heat pumps to their app, where users can program automatic adjustments to the temperature in their house. With more and more energy devices (DERs) connected, a user soon will be able to get a complete overview of their energy consumption - all inside the Fjordkraft app.

Fjordkraft has integrated to three energy hardware categories (DERs): EVs, EVSEs and Heat Pumps. All data collected directly from the end-users’ devices via the Enode API, displayed in real-time. They are also combining DER data with their own billing and consumption data, giving the user a complete overview of their energy consumption.

This is of course great for consumers, who get energy insights, statistics, and smart charging savings for free. But Fjordkraft knows this is just the beginning. They want to have a larger impact, on the energy system as a whole.

With tens of thousands of EVs connected to the app, about half of them with smart charging enabled, Fjordkraft is building up one of the largest residential virtual power plants (VPPs) in the Norwegian market. Together with Statkraft and Enode they are actively using this VPP in the local flexibility market to increase the revenue from connected hardware. The gains of which will be distributed to the consumers who are actively helping balance the grid with their EVs. Another win-win-win, for the consumer, for Fjordkraft and for the grid.

EV drivers love insights and statistics about their driving and charging. With the Enode Statistics API, Fjordkraft can easily show the user how many kWh was charged at home and on the road, as well as how much the user saved on Smart Charging.

Fjordkraft and Enode partner for the future of smart energy management

To say that the partnership between Fjordkraft and Enode has been a success would be an understatement. Many of the innovations launched by Enode over the last two years, including smart charging, scheduling and demand response capabilities, has been co-developed with input from the Fjordkraft team. Marius Øxenbjerg, business developer at Fjordkraft, articulates it nicely:

The partnership between Enode and Fjordkraft has been a win-win from the start. They have enabled us to become a market leader in EV connections and smart charging. The Enode team is years ahead of the competition when it comes to EV APIs and smart energy management and we look forward to pushing the partnership further with connection to more energy hardware and demand response.

Thank you, Marius! We look forward to working with you as well!