An Post and DHL Plug Their EV Depots Into Ireland's Grid Flexibility Market

Fleet charging in Ireland is getting a second job. A new pilot is wiring the depots of An Post and DHL Express Ireland straight into the country’s electricity flexibility markets, letting operators dial charging up or down as the grid tightens or loosens — and possibly turn a profit while doing it.

Four sites make up the trial: three run by the postal carrier in Cork and Galway, plus a DHL Express depot in Dublin. Between them sit 211 electric vehicles and 181 charge points, together offering as much as 500 kW of flexible demand that the grid can lean on.

What flexibility actually means here

The logic is straightforward. When national demand spikes, depot charging can throttle back. When wind is pouring cheap renewable power onto the system, the chargers soak it up. Vans still have to be ready for their morning routes — that part is non-negotiable — but the hours in between become negotiable.

Pilot at a glance: 4 depots · 211 EVs · 181 charging points · up to 500 kW of flexible demand · An Post, DHL Express and partners VIOTAS, Mitsui Ireland, ESB Smart Energy Services, eStation and The Mobility House Solutions

Several partners are involved. eStation and The Mobility House Solutions are handling the supply and installation of the charging and energy management kit, while VIOTAS gives the depots a route into EirGrid’s flexibility markets — the mechanism that pays participants for adjusting their load.

The revenue side is the hook for fleet bosses. Cheaper energy is one thing; getting paid by the system operator for shifting demand is another entirely.

Shane Mullarkey, who works on business development at Mitsui Ireland, framed it as an overlooked asset: large electric commercial fleets, he said, “serve as a powerful distributed battery resource,” capable of moving charging to hours when renewables are abundant, easing peak strain and supplying balancing services. He stressed that decarbonisation and day-to-day operational efficiency remain the primary concerns for logistics operators.

Why logistics is the test case

Depots are close to Ideal for this sort of scheme. Vehicles sit idle for long stretches anyway, and the fleet turns over predictably — the kind of dependable, schedulable load that grid operators like. That dependability is precisely why the pilot is being watched beyond Ireland; if paid flexibility pencils out for vans and trucks, the model travels well.

For now, the numbers are modest — a few hundred vehicles — but this kind of trial is where the commercial case gets built. If charged right, the rooftops logistics fleets already own could end up doing more for the grid than for the parcels.