Background

Frank Energie is a pioneering Dutch energy utility that offers dynamic energy tariffs to households and businesses in the Netherlands. Since its establishment in 2020, they have gained recognition for its dynamic tariffs, placing them at the forefront of this market. Its mission is to make energy better and smarter, ultimately making it more fun, cheaper and greener for the customer.  

With the rising popularity of electric mobility, Frank Energie sought to assist its clients in automating the charging of electric vehicles (EVs) on dynamic tariffs. While the Frank Energie app already provided insights into tariffs and energy consumption, implementing control and automation was the next logical step in this journey. The recent occurrence of negative prices in the Netherlands further emphasized the importance of this feature for customers. EVs, being the most flexible and high-consuming appliance in households, have the most significant impact in optimizing energy usage.

Solution and Results

To enhance their offering, Frank Energie chose to partner with Jedlix to implement a comprehensive smart charging solution directly within the Frank Energie app. Leveraging Jedlix's API, webviews, and SDK, the integration was seamless, requiring minimal effort. Jedlix's platform provided access to a wide range of connected electric cars and charging stations, enabling Frank Energie to cater to the majority of EV drivers in their portfolio without the need for additional hardware.

Virtual Power Plant (VPP)

By steering and controlling the charging on dynamic tariffs, Frank Energie’s customers directly benefit from reduced energy bills. However, Frank Energie aimed to go beyond this optimization and make a more significant impact on smart charging. This is where our VPP technology came into play. In addition to tariff-based control, Jedlix also leverages other incentives such as the real-time balancing of the Dutch grid by steering cars’ pools. This allows the smart charging of cars to further contribute to grid stability, reducing balancing costs for Frank Energie as a supplier and minimizing curtailment of excess wind and solar energy production. Some of these benefits are shared with Frank Energie’s customers as a reward for their contribution, making it even more advantageous. In fact, customers of Frank Energie can save up to € 1,080 annually compared to a regular electricity contract.  

We at Jedlix are very excited about this offering and believe it exemplifies the immense benefits our platform brings to energy suppliers and their customers.  

Frank Energie had a clear ambition to provide the best and most unique smart charging solution for EV drivers in the Netherlands. By integrating and partnering with Jedlix, we had all the necessary tools at our disposal to deliver this exceptional offering. – Thomas Hulshof, CCO at Frank Energie