How a Toyota dealer cut energy costs 55%, even with DC fast chargers

A Toyota dealer on Long Island, Sunrise Toyota, cut its energy costs by an average of 55% over three months by combining solar panels, battery storage, DC fast EV chargers, and software that automatically manages when power gets used and stored. The dealership, which operates locations in Oakdale and Medford, New York, had been facing rising utility bills, made worse by new DC fast chargers Toyota required it to install. Fast chargers can cause sudden spikes in power draw, and commercial customers often get charged extra for those spikes, separate from their regular electricity use.

To solve this, a company called Sprocket Power built a system that pairs onsite solar with batteries and AI-driven software. The software decides when to store solar power and when to release it from the batteries, smoothing out those demand spikes and even earning bill credits by participating in utility grid programs. According to the companies involved, the setup reduced peak power draw by up to 101 kilowatts and kept the batteries running 99% of the time, with a projection that the dealership could eventually cut its net utility costs by 90% and pay off the investment in five years. These figures come from the companies themselves and haven't been independently verified.

This is a commercial project, not a homeowner program, but it points to a trend worth knowing about: pairing solar with home battery storage can do more than provide backup power during outages. It can also help manage electricity costs tied to how power is used throughout the day, a factor increasingly relevant as more homes add EV chargers and other high-power devices.