Case Study | Retailer Plaid Pantry Revolutionizes EV Charging with Cost Savings & Rapid Deployment

Electric Era revolutionizes EV charging for Plaid Pantry, a major convenience store chain, by delivering fast-charging stations 18 months ahead of schedule and reducing peak demand charges, resulting in $90,000 in recaptured revenue and a 38% increase in gross margins within the first year. Decreasing installation time was achieved by reducing grid infrastructure requirements and peak shaving demand through the use of Electric Era's energy storage systems and software that come with each charging station.

Electric Era has successfully installed EV fast charging for retail leader Plaid Pantry, delivering superior reliability, faster time to market, and significant cost savings. Plaid Pantry, a retailer operating 108 c-stores across Washington and Oregon, recognized the critical need to add EV fast charging at their retail locations. However, they faced challenges common to the industry, including grid constraints, high demand charges, suboptimal reliability, and slow time to revenue.

The Challenge

The EV charging landscape presents several hurdles for retailers:

• Retailers typically wait 18 months to activate stations due to grid upgrades, delaying revenue collection and resulting in significant opportunity costs.
• Once installed, typical charging stations incur high peak demand charges from utilities, which can amount to $12,400 per year and $124,000k over the station's lifetime at Plaid Pantry.

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Jonathan Polonsky, Chairman & CEO of Plaid Pantry, explains:

"Everyday, more and more drivers are switching to electric vehicles. As a fuel and convenience retailer, we recognized how essential it is to serve this growing market with a premium product. Electric Era was able to beat utility upgrade timelines and activate ahead of schedule to collect revenue early and deliver significant demand charge reduction."

The Electric Era Solution

Electric Era eliminated the need for grid upgrades at Plaid Pantry, allowing the store to activate the charging station 18 months earlier while minimizing demand charges. The solution offers:

1. Faster Time to Market: Electric Era delivers turnkey EV fast charging stations within 6 months. With its battery-backed design and proprietary core software, Plaid Pantry immediately collected revenue from EV fast charging and saw an associated boost to in-store sales – an estimated $90,000 in total revenue recaptured from early activation.
   
   
2. Superior Reliability: Electric Era's fully integrated hardware, software, and services, combined with its patented core software, deliver industry-leading 99.5%+ per port reliability, ensuring the best possible customer experience.
   
   
3. Significant Cost Savings: Electric Era is expected to reduce peak demand charges and increase gross margins by 38% in year one alone.
   
   
4. Brand Extension and User Experience: Electric Era's fully customizable on-screen display and loyalty program integration allow Plaid Pantry to extend their brand and provide a seamless, app-free charging experience for their customers.

Jonathan Polonsky, CEO and Chairman of Plaid Pantry, turned to Electric Era for an all-in-one solution. Electric Era's fully integrated EV fast charging ecosystem is the only solution that addresses key grid integration challenges while increasing profitability and delivering industry-leading speed to market.

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For more information on how Electric Era can transform your retail locations with cutting-edge EV charging solutions,  sales@electriceratechnologies.com.