Optimising energy services for EV charging solutions

Virta

Liikennevirta Oy
Manager, Energy UX designer
Helsinki, Finland | 2022–2025

Contribution: Led cross-team product development projects and designed Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), Time-of-Use (ToU) spot pricing, Virta Hub global navigation, Virta App public charging components, stations' energy settings, and energy load management services.

Photos by Ville Vappula Studio - www.villevappula.com

The EV charging ecosystem brings together several key players: Charging Point Operators (CPOs), who own and run the chargers; eMobility Providers (EMPs), who give drivers access to charging services; EV drivers and their vehicles; and Charge Point Management Systems (CPMS) such as Virta, which provide the cloud-based software that connects and manages the network.

As the EV market grows, so does demand for electricity. Yet energy supply and site capacity remain limited. To prevent overloaded connections, blown fuses and high energy costs, the CPOs must intelligently manage electricity use, balancing demand with available capacity.

Product Development Process

I introduced a unified design process at Virta, combining design thinking, lean startup and agile. By leading customer validated discovery one quarter ahead of development and aligning product, design and engineering, we reduced feature bloat and improved planning and delivery for the Energy and Virtual Power Plant teams.

I did customer research, service blueprinting, prototyping and user testing, translating insights into validated concepts, epics, user stories and development-ready designs in Figma. Additionally, with experience across multiple systems, I also managed cross-team Energy projects with complex development dependencies.

Vehicle-to-Grid

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) is an advanced charging technology that enables two-way power flow between an electric vehicle (EV) battery and the electricity grid. It transforms EVs from passive energy consumers into mobile energy assets that can both draw power from and supply it to the grid.

By balancing supply and demand—particularly during peak periods—V2G helps stabilise the grid, reduce disruptions and maintain normal operating frequency. It also creates new revenue streams for charging point operators and allows EV drivers to benefit from participation in energy markets.

As not all EVs support bidirectional charging, pricing must distinguish compatible vehicles to avoid losses for CPOs. The design therefore informs drivers about V2G and gives them control over energy sharing, while safeguarding battery life and minimum charge requirements.

Virta Energy

Energy load management services dynamically adjusts the power delivered to EVs during charging sessions. As demand and availability constantly change, clear real-time communication between EV drivers and CPOs is essential for a good user experience. However, Virta Energy operated as a separate system from Virta Hub, causing UX inconsistencies, development dependencies and higher operational costs. My contribution was to align Virta Energy with the Virta design language and define migration concepts for its integration into Virta Hub.