Customers with eligible vehicles will have to opt-in to the Remote Connect service via their apps once their vehicle has been registered. Electricity forecast data will then be obtained from WattTime, and this will be combined with each customer’s specific charging and mobility needs to create an individualized charging schedule.
Obtainable via the Eco Charging feature, customers will easily be able to see the charging times that offer the lowest carbon footprint and impact on health by, for instance, drawing electricity from the cleanest power plant options available at any given time. As WattTime states, consumers can then avoid periods of “dirtier energy” and adjust to different power plants turning on or off at different times. Without WattTime’s data, there is no way for the average consumer to have access to this information.
An example provided by WattTime is the New York grid, where an upstate power plant causes far less harm to people’s lungs than if the same amount of power was obtained from a fossil-fueled peaker plant in Queens.