Energy Tech Summit 2026 keynote
80 million EVs are coming to Europe’s roads – and the grid can’t handle them plugging in at 6 p.m. Gridio’s Braeden Holmes on turning that threat into the grid’s biggest flexibility asset.
Braeden Holmes, VP of Partnerships at Gridio, was back on the Energy Tech Summit stage a year after his last appearance – with a progress report on the same mission: making electric vehicles serve the grid, not just drain it.
EVs are about to own the evening peak
Holmes opened with the math. EVs today account for about 8% of peak load, as drivers plug in around 6 p.m. By 2032, with 80 million EVs expected on Europe’s roads, that share hits 50% – “something the grid cannot handle right now.”
Then he flipped the numbers: 80 million vehicles at 60 kilowatt hours each is roughly five terawatt hours of batteries – more, by his comparison, than all gas-fired plants combined. The cars threatening the peak are also the largest flexibility asset Europe has ever had.
Braeden Holmes, VP of Partnerships at Gridio
The bet: partner with carmakers instead of hacking them
Most smart-charging players reverse-engineer the vehicles, Holmes said – “we were also hacking into the EVs, like our competition.” It works, but it’s unreliable. A year ago, he and Gridio’s CEO bet the company on the opposite approach: direct partnerships with the carmakers.
Today, 65% of EV manufacturers are under direct partnership, heading for 90% by the end of 2026. The bet paid an unexpected dividend: many OEMs had no smart-charging API ready, so Gridio now helps them build it – making the stack future-proof, and “less buggy for the utilities.”
From the driver’s plug to the utility’s trading desk
The consumer side is simple, Holmes explained: 90% of EV drivers charge at home. Gridio connects directly to the car – any wall box works – and shifts charging to the cheapest hours. Drivers save up to 50% on charging, worth around €100–250 a year, more with solar.
Utilities get a ladder. Step one is Smart Charge Plus, a fully branded white-label app that launches in under a week – the play Gridio ran with TotalEnergies in France and Spain. Step two is API integration, moving users into the utility’s own app without reconnecting anything.
At around 2,000–5,000 connected cars, the flexibility product kicks in: Gridio follows dynamic tariffs, custom price curves or solar production – or the utility steers by volume, shifting, say, 4 megawatts of charging from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., dispatched on demand to the trading desk. Holmes’ summary: “Power is nothing without control.”
A smart-charging platform people actually like using
Gridio has run since 2021 and is, per Holmes, the only smart-charging player with its own consumer-facing app – rated 4.7 stars. The rating is strategic, he argued: drivers frustrated by clunky utility apps simply disconnect, “and that defeats the whole purpose of having a smart charging program.”
The takeaway
Holmes’ core argument: Europe’s EV problem and its grid problem are the same problem, and flexibility is the hinge between them. The technology exists – what scales it is trust. Reliable OEM connections, apps drivers don’t abandon, and products utilities can launch in a week instead of a year.
The keynote stage returns at Energy Tech Summit 2027 in Bilbao, April 7–8. Secure your pass.
