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ChargeFlow ⚡

Inspiration

Lisbon is rapidly adopting electric vehicles, but most EV charging still happens during peak hours—when electricity is most expensive, most carbon-intensive, and most stressful for the grid.

As cities push toward sustainability, we saw a growing mismatch between when people charge and when energy is clean and affordable. Today's solutions either optimize for cost alone or rely on expensive infrastructure upgrades. We wanted a smarter, software-first approach.

ChargeFlow was inspired by a simple question:

What if every EV charger in a city could work together as a coordinated energy asset?

What It Does

ChargeFlow is an intelligent EV charging planner that schedules charging when electricity is:

• Cheapest
• Cleanest
• Most grid-friendly

Instead of optimizing for a single metric, ChargeFlow balances economic, environmental, and infrastructure goals to produce schedules that work for drivers and cities.

How It Works

Users simply enter their:

• Vehicle model
• Current charge level
• Desired charge level
• Charging deadline

ChargeFlow then generates an optimized charging schedule that balances three key objectives:

1. 💰 Cost Savings - Charge when prices are lowest
2. 🌱 CO₂ Reduction - Charge when renewable energy is abundant
3. ⚡ Grid Load Smoothing - Reduce strain during peak demand

Each possible charging window is scored using a weighted multi-objective model:

Score = wc · Cost + we · CO₂ + wg · Grid Load

Lower score is better, and all terms are normalized so no single metric dominates unfairly. Users can choose priorities (cheapest, cleanest, or balanced) to transparently explore tradeoffs.

City-Scale Impact

At the city level, ChargeFlow simulates how thousands of drivers using smart scheduling could dramatically reduce peak demand and emissions across Lisbon—turning individual chargers into a coordinated virtual power plant.

This demonstrates how small individual behavior shifts can scale into meaningful city-wide benefits without requiring new infrastructure.

How We Built It

Frontend & UI

• Next.js + TypeScript for a responsive, type-safe interface
• Tailwind CSS for a sleek, dark-mode design
• Recharts for interactive data visualizations

Core Engine

• Custom multi-objective scheduling algorithm
• City-scale simulator to model grid impact
• Scenario modeling (weekday peak, sunny weekend, winter evening)

Challenges We Faced

Data & Realism

One of the biggest challenges was modeling realistic grid behavior without access to live utility APIs. We had to:

• Design believable demand curves that mirror actual grid patterns
• Simulate realistic price fluctuations throughout the day
• Approximate carbon intensity variations based on renewable availability
• Ensure results felt authentic and not artificially optimized

Solo Development

Another significant challenge was building a polished user experience as a solo developer while simultaneously implementing:

• Complex scheduling algorithms
• Multi-scenario simulations
• Performance optimizations
• Responsive design across devices

Balancing technical depth with UX clarity required careful prioritization and iteration.

What We Learned

This project reinforced several key insights:

• Small changes, massive impact - Individual scheduling decisions compound into significant grid-scale benefits
• UX is as critical as algorithms - The best optimization means nothing if users can't understand or trust it
• Multi-objective > single-metric - Balancing cost, emissions, and grid health produces better real-world outcomes
• Software-first sustainability - Meaningful environmental gains are possible without expensive hardware upgrades

What's Next for ChargeFlow

Near-Term

• Consumer-facing charging assistant (mobile app + notifications)
• Live grid integration (real-time pricing and carbon intensity)
• AI-based demand forecasting (predictive scheduling)

Long-Term

• Utility demand-response platform
• Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) support
• Multi-city expansion beyond Lisbon

The Vision

ChargeFlow transforms millions of uncoordinated chargers into a virtual power plant—starting with Lisbon and scaling to cities worldwide.

By making smart charging effortless, we can accelerate the clean energy transition while saving drivers money and reducing grid stress.

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Built for a smarter, cleaner urban energy future.

Built With

• city-simulation-engine
• custom-scheduling-algorithm
• next.js
• node.js
• recharts
• tailwind-css
• typescript