Case study·E-Mobility in Logistics·Germany & Europe

Charging huge fleet parks without tripping the connection

Logistics charging parks run anywhere from tens to hundreds of bays, mostly 22 kW chargers, all pulling on one site connection. Exceed the supplier agreement and the penalties are brutal. We built the load management that kept every depot safe — and turned it into a product our client could sell.

Sector
E-mobility, global logistics
Where
Germany & Europe
Time range
2019–2023
The win
60% peak shave, zero penalties
At a glance

Full Stack Energy's client provides energy systems and services to some of the world's largest logistics fleets, whose parks run between roughly 20 and 300 charging bays — mostly 22 kW AC Level 2 chargers, occasionally Level 3 DC fast chargers — co-located with sorting and dispatch centres. They needed to balance fleet charging without exceeding their supplier connection agreement and triggering substantial financial penalties. We built a scalable static and dynamic load-management system for OCPP chargers, deployed across Europe via Azure IoT, that shaved 60% off peak load, eliminated penalties, and scaled to 30+ parks in six countries.

  • ClientEnergy solutions provider
  • End-customerGlobal logistics companies
  • SegmentEV & Fleet Operator
  • ProblemSite load vs. connection limits, at scale
  • ApproachStatic + dynamic OCPP load management
  • Scale30+ parks · 6 countries · 2019–2023
01The brief

Hundreds of bays, one connection, real penalties

A typical logistics charge park has between 20 and 300 EV charging bays, most fitted with 22 kW AC Level 2 chargers and occasionally Level 3 DC fast chargers, all co-located with sorting and dispatch centres. Collectively they place a significant load on the local electrical infrastructure — and on the supplier connection agreement that caps total site load.

Exceed that cap and the financial penalties are substantial. But the fleet still has to be charged and ready for dispatch, so the charging can’t simply be throttled blindly. The operator needed to balance real charging demand against a hard connection limit, across many sites, without human supervision at each one.

Our client doesn’t just operate this for themselves — they provide energy systems and services to large logistics fleets. So they didn’t only need a system that worked; they needed a range of products and solutions they could sell on to their own customers.

02What we did

Intercept, control, and make it scale

OCPP is the lever, but the real-world chargers don’t always behave. We built a system that controls load reliably across compliant and non-compliant hardware alike, and manages thousands of remote devices across Europe.

fieldPython 3 (asyncio) on Linux Yocto · industrial ARM gateways
controlOCPP interception + shim layer · MODBUS · automated certification
iotAzure IoT + IoT Edge · remote device management across Europe
cloudAzure · Kubernetes · Docker · PostgreSQL / InfluxDB / SQLite · Grafana

The hard part isn't the chargers that follow the OCPP spec — it's the ones that don't. A shim layer that quietly fixes their traffic is the difference between a demo and a fleet.

Lead Engineer, Full Stack Energy
03The outcome

Safe, cheaper, and a new revenue stream

Without smart load management the end-customer faced real financial risk and operational inefficiency. With it, every depot now operates safely inside its grid-connection contract — zero penalties — while smart scheduling shifts charging into off-peak windows for a 60% peak-load shave, cutting both demand and energy cost.

The system rolled out to more than 30 parks across six countries with limited on-site support, proving it could scale. And because our client sells energy services, the load-management package itself became a billable add-on for their logistics customers — unlocking recurring software and energy-service income on top of the operational savings.

60%
peak-load shave via off-peak scheduling
Zero
penalties — every depot inside its contract
30+
parks across six countries
04From the team

What we’d tell you over coffee

Everyone designs for the charger that behaves. The engineering that actually mattered here was the shim layer — the bit that dynamically rewrites OCPP traffic so the non-compliant hardware in the real world plays nicely. That unglamorous translation work is what let the system scale to 30-plus parks instead of falling over at the second site.

The other lesson is commercial. Because our client sells to logistics fleets rather than just running their own, we built the load management as a product — with billing, reporting and device management baked in. That turned a cost-avoidance tool into a recurring revenue stream, which is a very different conversation.

EVOCPPLoad ManagementAzure IoTFleetLogistics
05FAQ

Common questions about large-scale fleet charging

Static and dynamic load management shapes charging in real time across all the OCPP chargers on a site, so total draw stays under the supplier connection agreement. Smart scheduling shifts charging into off-peak windows, which shaved 60% off peak load and eliminated the penalties that come with breaching the cap.

Real-world chargers don't always behave. A dynamic shim layer intercepts OCPP traffic and automatically rewrites it to accommodate non-compliant hardware, backed by an automated certification system that verifies compliance — which is what let the platform scale across mixed hardware instead of breaking at the second site.

Yes. Built on Microsoft Azure IoT and IoT Edge, the platform manages thousands of remote gateways and routers from one place, and rolled out to more than 30 parks across six countries with limited on-site support. Billing, reporting and device-management tools also let the operator package it as a sellable product.

Charging more sites than you can manage by hand?

Once it's tens of parks and hundreds of bays, coordination beats local control — and it can become a product you sell. Let's look at your estate.