1.
Let’s build a smarter planet
Dublin, Ireland
www.esb.ie
Solution Components
• IBM®
Intelligent Electric Vehicle
Enablement Platform
• IBM Global Business Services®
—
Business Consulting Services
Energy & Utilities
Electricity Supply Board
Optimization algorithms minimize the impact of
electric vehicle charging on grid congestion
Founded in 1927 and based in Dublin, the Electricity Supply Board
(ESB) is a vertically integrated utility and the leading Irish company
in the energy utility sector. The organization employs approximately
7,800 people. Its ESB Networks division owns and operates electricity
transmission and distribution systems for all electricity customers and
all generators and suppliers of electricity in the Republic of Ireland.
The Opportunity
To manage the potentially destabilizing impact of its large-scale electric
vehicle (EV) program on the grid, Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board
(ESB) needed to optimize its charging load without affecting the consumer
experience. It also sought to provide customers with a way to optimize
their consumption by aligning daytime usage patterns with energy
pricing fluctuations.
What Makes It Smarter
ESB built a charging solution that uses optimization algorithms to allocate
EV charging capacity in a way that minimizes load strain on the grid
while maximizing customer convenience. Its smart metering solution
provides customers with insights on near-real-time pricing, enabling
them to align their power usage to periods of nonpeak grid capacity.
Real Business Results
Among households using smart meters, the solution reduced average
electricity consumption during peak hours by nearly 9 percent.
The company expects its overall grid stabilization efforts to save
EUR200 million annually in service-level penalties through improved
network reliability and faster recovery. The key benefit of the charging
solution is that it helps reduce peaks in consumption and avoid grid
congestion, thus enabling ESB to avoid expensive upgrades to the
transmission or distribution infrastructure.

2.
For more information
Please contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner.
Visit us at ibm.com/gbs.
To learn more about Electricity Supply Board., visit www.esb.ie.
“Because our smart grid solution enables us to manage
our network more intelligently, we’ll be able to avoid
building costly extra capacity in the future.”
—Jerry O’Sullivan, managing director
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January 2014
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