EV adoption is accelerating across the U.S. and beyond, driven by ambitious state-level mandates like New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and growing fleet electrification commitments. At the same time, mounting grid constraints are making it harder to keep pace. The challenge is clear: deploying charging sites efficiently, cost-effectively, and reliably.
Wevo’s recent webinar “Practical EV Charging Lessons from the Grid to the Plug” brought together three perspectives across the EV ecosystem: Con Edison (utility), DVM Industries (installer), and Wevo Energy (software). Their combined lessons shed light on what it really takes to build charging infrastructure that scales.
Lesson 1: Engage Utilities Early
One prominent pain point in EV charging deployment is utility coordination. Projects stall when developers underestimate the timelines and requirements for grid connections. Many new charging sites depend on grid capacity, approvals, and in some cases, upgrades, all of which hinge on early and ongoing utility involvement.
Devi Mohan, Section Manager for Commercial Managed Charging at Con Edison emphasized:
“Connect with your utility early and often, which is probably the thing I say the most. There are a lot of tools… hosting capacity maps, fleet assessment services… taking advantage of those resources really, I think, reduces some of the headaches and some of the challenges.”
Installers echoed the same. Jim Justice Executive Vice President of DVM Industries explained that upfront site assessments and utility coordination are critical to avoid budget surprises:
“It helps you speed up the process. It helps you understand what load is available to you… getting ahead of all of that stuff will save you a ton of money.”
- Key Takeaway: Engage utilities before design begins to control costs, build to scale, and avoid delays.
Lesson 2: Prioritize Connectivity in Site Design
A hidden failure point in EV charging is connectivity: weak signals, interference, or poor planning can leave an entire site non-functional. When chargers can’t reliably communicate, operators lose visibility and drivers face a frustrating experience.
Jim Justice explained how his team learned this lesson firsthand:
“A big piece of it comes down to connectivity. We learned this the hard way early on… Using a good software and hardware package that they’ve tested and integrated and have a proven track record with is critical. Testing Wi-Fi vs. cell signal, ensuring strong coverage, laying out access points; connectivity is really the big piece.”
- Key Takeaway: Prioritize connectivity in site design to ensure reliability and driver trust.
Lesson 3: Plan for Hardware-Software Interoperability
Many EV projects underestimate the role of software, treating it as something bundled with the charger, rather than a strategic choice. This approach risks vendor lock-in, stranded hardware, and projects that can’t adapt if vendors fail or requirements evolve.
Marina Hod, Managing Director of Americas at Wevo Energy, highlighted this directly:
“Probably the biggest misconception is just use whatever comes with the charger. But actually, the software partner you select and the software that runs on the charger can make or break your project. One thing that’s super important is interoperability, making sure you’re picking hardware and software that’s OCPP, open and standard, so you can swap one without having to replace the other.”
“A lot of customers like that flexibility. A lot of times they stick with that specific software as long as it’s doing a good job. But if something were to happen or a company go out of business which we’ve seen in recent years, customers don’t have to rip out the hardware; they can simply swap out the software. That’s a big selling point for us and for them.”
Together, their points underline a critical truth: open standards ensure software and hardware can be swapped independently, keeping projects resilient as the market shifts.
- Key Takeaway: Use OCPP-compliant hardware and software to keep projects flexible and future-proof.
Lesson 4: Streamline Multiple Vendor Coordination
EV charging deployments involve a host of vendors: utilities, installers, hardware OEMs, and software platforms. When accountability is unclear, site hosts risk getting stuck between vendors if issues emerge, which can lead to delays and downtime while chargers stay offline. Therefore, Marina Hod stressed that the turnkey installer should play the role of primary point of contact:
“The best experience is to have one main point of contact, and that tends to be the turnkey installer. At the end of the day, site hosts know who to go to if they have issues. We’ve seen the flip side, when the installer disappears, the software company doesn’t respond, and the utility ends up reporting to regulators without the data they need.”
Wevo’s model is to empower the turnkey installer to stay at the center of the relationship. Software and utility partners work in the background, but the customer always knows who is accountable. This avoids confusion, ensures faster resolution of issues, and keeps projects from unravelling when responsibilities blur.
- Key Takeaway: Keep one accountable partner — the turnkey installer — to streamline coordination.
Lesson 5: Leverage Grid Programs & Managed Charging
EV charging economics are shaped by three distinct but connected elements: infrastructure incentives that lower upfront costs, managed charging incentives that reward grid-friendly behavior, and software-driven energy management that makes both effective in practice.
On the infrastructure side, utilities like Con Edison reduce the barrier to adoption by funding make-ready work and charger installation. As Devi Mohan explained:
“Our Power Ready program really aims to put plugs in the ground and support charger installation… both private and public adoption. That program has been in inception since 2020 and, as of June 2025, we’ve already installed 12,000 plugs within our territory, which really does help push market adoption.”
“The way that we like to think about it is essentially: we have infrastructure programs to really help set up the chargers and spur EV adoption, and then once you’re there, we have managed charging programs that help mitigate some of those high operating costs.”
But incentives alone don’t deliver savings. That’s where software-enabled energy management comes in. As Marina Hod explained:
“Energy management means allocating power where and when it’s needed most, avoiding charging during the highest priced hours when energy is most expensive, and avoiding charging during those hours when the grid is under stress, but still ensuring every vehicle is ready when needed.”
Real-world examples showed the difference: unmanaged sites created costly demand spikes when drivers plugged in at peak hours, while sites with active energy management shifted charging to off-peak times, lowering both demand charges and stress on the grid.
Together, these three pieces form a flywheel: infrastructure incentives reduce upfront costs, managed charging incentives reward ongoing participation, and energy management software ensures sites capture the value.
- Key Takeaway: Combine utility infrastructure funding, managed charging incentives, and site-level energy management to maximize savings and grid benefits.
Conclusion
Practical EV charging deployment is about coordinated planning across utilities, installers, and software. The projects that succeed are those that engage utilities early, design for strong connectivity, choose interoperable software, assign a single accountable partner, and bring together incentive programs with on-site energy management. The result: sites that deploy faster and operate and scale more efficiently.
These insights came directly from experts working in the field every day — Con Edison, DVM Industries, and Wevo Energy — during our recent webinar.
