Amsterdam Begins Deftpower Smart Charging Trial

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Last Updated on: 15th May 2025, 06:22 pm

Amsterdam has a problem. It wants to build new housing units and add more EV chargers so that people in those new houses can drive electric cars. But at the present time, it can’t do both. Deftpower is a Dutch EV charging aggregator that thinks it has a solution. “The electric vehicle industry is messy because of its newness,” it says on its website. “All the companies that played a role in kickstarting it — the car manufacturers, the energy retailers, the grid operators, the charger manufacturers — are somewhat disconnected from each other and from their final customer — the driver.”

Jacob van Zonneveld, CEO of Deftpower, told Electrive in a recent interview, “We created Deftpower to help make sense of this chaos. We set out to organize the ecosystem and connect all the players to best serve the drivers and make each business profitable. Software … is the only way to untangle the noise and technical debt piling up in the industry. They say one public charging station equals four houses, so what do we want? One charging station or four houses that are affordable?“

That’s a stark choice to make. According to Wikipedia, Amsterdam is one of the most densely populated cities in the Netherlands, with 4,457 inhabitants and 2,275 housing units per square kilometer. In total, it is comprised of slightly fewer than 220 square kilometers, so space within the city is at a premium. The city recently instituted a new policy that requires charging system operators to implement smart charging strategies in order to get the permission they need to install charge points in public spaces. Smart charging is what Deftpower is all about.

Download, Click, Save

Drivers download the Deftpower app and give it access to their charging data one time. After that, Deftpower tracks their charging history and combines that with currently available incentives from the local grid operator and utility company. Then it uses artificial intelligence to determine the best time to charge each car in order to avoid periods of high electricity demand and maximize available incentives. As a result, energy demand for EV charging is shifted away from periods of peak demand and EV drivers can even earn some extra compensation. In other words, everybody wins.

“When the city started working with charge point operators, they quickly found two big problems,” van Zonneveld explains. “They didn’t have permission from EV drivers to smart charge, and they had no idea how full the cars’ batteries were or when drivers were planning to continue their journey.” The Deftpower app solves both those problems.

“We know the state of charge and the predicted departure time,” says van Zonneveld. “So if 100 vehicles plug in, we can tell you which 60 can be delayed, and which 40 need to charge immediately.”

You reward good behavior,” he adds. “People still park and plug in as normal. Now, at the end of the session, they also get cash back.”

Deftpower Unlocks A Second Business Model

In a blog post earlier this year, van Zonnefeld and Deftpower co-founder Michael Johanns explained that there are actually two business models in the charging business. The first is selling electricity to EV drivers to charge their cars directly. After deducting the cost of the electricity, that model nets the charging company about €35 a year per charging customer. But there is a second business opportunity that is much larger which the pair calls “flexibility” — or plug in now and charge later.

“Reselling flexibility is going to be more valuable than reselling electricity. If done well, up to 500€ (research varies between 200€ and 2000€) per EV per year can be extracted from the power markets and grid operators simply by changing consumption patterns and, eventually, delivering energy back into the system through V2G,” the pair claim.

The company has done its homework. Its research tells it there are two typical blocks of charging time: one from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm — while the driver is at work — and the other between 6:00 pm and 8:00 am — when the driver is home and the car is parked overnight. The average charging session dispenses 22 kWh of electricity — about 3 hours worth of charging assuming an average power output of 7 kW. That means there is flexibility to only charge a car for 3 hours even though it is plugged in for 8 to 12 hours. In the Netherlands, electric car drivers consume about 2200 MWh of electricity every day. 1500 MWh of that total can be time shifted, Deftpower maintains.

Using the Deftpower platform, a typical EV driver could “earn” about €500 a year. “In a lifetime, the savings could add up to the cost of a whole car,” van Zonnevelt and Johhanns assert. So why isn’t everybody doing it? Because, the duo says, no other app collects data from the car itself on its state of charge and when the driver wants the charging session to be completed. “Put very simply, there is a battery owned by someone [in an electric car] and the energy market or grid operator wants to decide when that battery gets charged and is willing to pay for that. They only need to ask the owner of the battery if they may do so.” Deftpower supplies that permission.

If the pilot program in Amsterdam is successful, the European Commission is ready to see it expanded to other cities. If EV drivers can realize a benefit worth approximately €500 a year (some more, some less), there’s a pretty good chance lots of them will want to sign up. The electricity to operate an electric car already costs less than gasoline or diesel. Sweetening the pot will just make the value case tip more in favor of driving electric.

The pilot project began in March and has already demonstrated measurable results. “We’re seeing 60 to 70 per cent of consumption shift away from peak hours,” says van Zonneveld. This is not just a technical win; it directly impacts housing policy. “If grid demand is reduced, the city can approve more construction projects. So suddenly, smart charging enables broader urban development.”

Deftpower & AI

Artificial intelligence is an important part of the technology package. “A human can only connect so many dots. AI looks at our data, weather patterns, user calendars — whatever is available — and predicts departure times with up to 95 per cent accuracy. You need a lot of data, but the results are better than what any human could calculate. Pure economics makes this worthwhile. Most Dutch drivers are aware of grid problems. Helping solve that with a single app and earning money while doing it? It’s a win-win. What we’re doing in Amsterdam could be the new standard for how Europe charges its electric vehicles,” van Zonnevelt says.

This is actually pretty exciting stuff for those who want to see the EV Revolution succeed. Anything that moves the needle toward public acceptance of electric vehicles is welcome news. Anything that counters the argument that electric cars will overwhelm the grid and force utility companies to spend billions on new grid infrastructure is also welcome news. It’s not hard to imagine Deftpower becoming an essential component of the EV experience in lots of places beside Amsterdam — maybe even a city near you!