Smart Charging for Better Energy Management

Some people start their own business. Others jump into an existing enterprise to help steer it toward greater growth. Thomas Martin is the latter.

Martin is Director of Business Development at SWTCH, whose mission is to improve electric vehicle charging accessibility in urban commercial and multi-tenant settings and ensure effective integration of EVs. He initially worked as a volunteer and then joined SWTCH full time when he finished his Master of Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

With the support of Stage 1 and Stage 2 Esch awards over that time, SWTCH has developed four channels to market: building management and electrical installation companies; EV charging hardware manufacturers; EV charging hardware resellers; and research and development partnerships with utilities and ISOs. With this market breadth, the company has deployed over 250 charging stations.

“Esch has been with us at every step of development,” says Martin. “We’re a profitable business at this point, but the Stage 3 funding means we can expand our service offering, add more customers, and move closer to a clean energy future.”

One strong attraction for those customers is SWTCH’s commitment to overcoming barriers to electric vehicle adoption, one of which is the extra strain placed on transformers and substations during times of peak load. It is better to distribute EV charging across off-peak hours through a managed or intelligent system.

“Strain on the grid is a genuine problem for mass EV adoption,” explains Martin. “It’s one thing to provide electric vehicle charging – that’s an essential. But it’s another to optimize the timing of that delivery. A condo with 30 to 40 EV chargers is not designed to accommodate that load during peak hours, and nor is our grid. We need a mechanism that allows residential buildings to control when charging happens.”

With an intelligent charging system in place, a vehicle plugged in at 5 pm may not begin charging until 9 pm or midnight. What matters for the user is a full charge by morning. Building owners most appreciate how the charging platform optimizes usage and revenue. 

That SWTCH offers scalable and future-proof charging solutions has not been lost on its impressive roster of customers, which includes Brookfield Asset Management, HSBC Investment Banking, the Royal Botanical Gardens, and several property management companies. In addition, its partners include the University of Toronto, Toronto Hydro, Ontario Power Generation and Natural Resources Canada, among many others. 

As a Toronto Metropolitan University student for seven years, Martin is especially proud of the six charging stations SWTCH recently installed at the Daphne Coxwell Health Sciences Complex. “With so much support from Toronto Metropolitan University and Esch, it’s incredibly satisfying to see our technology on campus.”