Ford Pro and Southern Company Unlock Energy Efficiency Through Managed EV Charging Pilot
Earlier this year, Ford Pro, the commercial and fleet solutions division of Ford Motor Company, partnered with Atlanta-based energy provider Southern Company to launch a six-month pilot program focused on managed charging for electric commercial fleets. The initiative was designed to study the opportunities, benefits, and challenges associated with controlled charging of electric vehicles (EVs), while also evaluating the overall impact on the electric grid.
The pilot represented a forward-looking collaboration between the automotive and energy sectors, reflecting a growing recognition that fleet electrification requires not just vehicles, but also intelligent energy management solutions that can balance costs, grid demand, and operational readiness. At its core, the program sought to answer an important question: how can large-scale EV fleets electrify responsibly without putting additional strain on the energy system?
Purpose of the Pilot
The central aim of the program was to explore how Southern Company, one of the largest energy providers in the United States, could optimize charging for its expanding EV fleet. By shifting charging to lower-cost periods and responding to real-time grid signals, Southern Company hoped to reduce expenses, support grid reliability, and maintain the operational readiness of its fleet. These learnings, in turn, would help Ford Pro and Southern Company create a framework for commercial customers to transition smoothly to electric fleets at scale.
The stakes of such a pilot are high. Commercial fleets are among the fastest-growing adopters of EV technology, yet their electricity demand, if unmanaged, could create challenges for local grids. By studying charging behaviors, testing demand response, and applying intelligent software tools, Ford Pro and Southern Company sought to build a foundation that could help both fleet operators and utilities navigate the road ahead.
Test Bed: Southern Company’s Fleet
The pilot leveraged Southern Company’s existing resources: more than 200 Ford F-150® Lightning® electric pickup trucks and over 150 Level 2 AC Ford Pro Chargers deployed across its subsidiaries. These vehicles, which serve diverse fleet operations across multiple states, provided a real-world environment for testing at scale.
Ford Pro Intelligence, the software backbone of the project, collected and analyzed detailed data from both the vehicles and chargers. This allowed Southern Company to gain critical visibility into charging patterns, peak demand times, and overall energy usage. By connecting hardware with intelligent software, the pilot created a digital ecosystem where fleet charging could be managed proactively rather than reactively.
Insights from Intelligent Energy Management
Over the six-month pilot, Southern Company explored how Ford Pro’s software could be used strategically to control charger availability and shift charging sessions to off-peak times. The results highlighted the effectiveness of Ford Pro’s energy management algorithm, which adjusted charging schedules without compromising driver needs.
As Tom Canada, fleet electrification project manager at Georgia Power (a Southern Company subsidiary), explained:
“Ford Pro’s energy management algorithm was able to throttle chargers to avoid windows of peak grid demand, shifting charging within the drivers’ existing charging window while still ensuring that drivers got the energy they expected out of a charging session. The insights gleaned from this pilot represent valuable learnings that can be applied to help us manage our electric vehicle fleets more efficiently and help us better advise customers who may approach our electric utilities for advice about managed charging for their fleets.”
This ability to balance operational requirements with grid-friendly charging represented one of the most critical outcomes of the pilot.
Results: Demand Response and Energy Savings
Perhaps the most notable achievement of the program was its demonstration of how managed charging could deliver tangible energy savings while maintaining reliability. Ford Pro coordinated strategic demand response events during the pilot, scheduling temporary charging pauses during times of peak grid demand and pricing.
Southern Company’s fleet successfully reduced total charging demand by 0.5 megawatts (500 kW) during a 30-minute demand response event—an average of roughly 10 kW of savings per charger. These demand response events were conducted three times at different times of the day and for varying durations, further validating the system’s flexibility.
Importantly, despite these controlled interruptions, fleet operations continued without disruption. This reinforced the idea that intelligent managed charging can support utility signals while protecting critical business uptime. For utilities, this represents a significant opportunity to enhance grid stability, while for fleets, it means access to potential cost savings without sacrificing performance.
Broader Implications
The collaboration between Ford Pro and Southern Company highlights the mutual benefits of pairing EV adoption with advanced energy management. For Southern Company, the pilot not only delivered immediate efficiency gains but also provided data and insights that will shape how it advises future customers considering fleet electrification.
For Ford Pro, the initiative demonstrated the value of its integrated software and hardware ecosystem, showcasing how EVs, chargers, and intelligent management tools can work together to drive smarter, cleaner, and more cost-effective fleet operations.
Beyond the immediate results, the pilot points toward a larger vision where EV fleets play an active role in grid management. By aggregating demand response from thousands of chargers, utilities could tap into a new source of flexibility to meet rising electricity needs. At the same time, fleet operators stand to benefit from lower costs and enhanced operational reliability.
