What is the Load Following setting in chargers?

Created by Levin Lam, Modified on Mon, 16 Mar at 10:06 PM by Levin Lam

The Load Following setting in BetterFleet is a load-balancing enhancement that dynamically adjusts how much power is allocated to each charger based on what the connected vehicle is actually drawing, instead of allocating a fixed or maximum amount.

Here is the clear functional explanation,

What Load Following does

1. Makes charger allocation follow actual vehicle power demand

When enabled:

BetterFleet continuously monitors the actual power being drawn by the vehicle, which is controlled by the vehicle's onboard battery management system (BMS).
The system adjusts the charger’s power allocation up or down to track that real consumption.

If a vehicle only pulls 10 kW, BetterFleet's allocation to the charger will not keep reserving 50 kW unnecessarily.

2. Frees up unused capacity for other chargers

Without load following:

Chargers may be allocated their max rating or static allocation.
If the vehicle isn’t using that power (e.g., reaching high SoC), that capacity stays locked.

With load following:

Allocation reduces when vehicle draw decreases.
Unused power capacity is redistributed to other chargers.

3. Allocation logic (how power is calculated)

The internal allocation formula is essentially:

NEW_ALLOCATION = MAX(charger minimum rating, current vehicle power draw) + user-defined buffer

This ensures:

Vehicle always has enough headroom to ramp up.
Allocation closely tracks actual power demand from vehicle.

4. Works alongside existing charging strategies

Load Following:

Is not a charging strategy itself.
Enhances load balancing regardless of FIFO, needs-based, etc.

5. Dynamic adjustment over time

Every load balancing cycle:

BetterFleet re-evaluates actual power draw from vehicle.
Allocation increases or decreases accordingly.
Unused capacity is released.

Practical behaviour you’ll see in BetterFleet

When enabled:

Allocation to charger reduces when actual power draw from vehicle reduces (e.g. reaching high SoC)
Power shifts to other vehicles automatically.
Less manual tuning required.
More efficient use of constrained electrical capacity.