In May 2022, InCharge Energy announced its involvement in a $20 million fleet electrification project for Quality Custom Distribution (QCD), a division of Golden State Foods. The project, developed with Scale Microgrid Solutions, deployed 30 Volvo VNR Electric trucks at QCD's La Puente, Southern California facility.
The charging infrastructure consisted of 16 ICE-180 DC fast chargers, each rated at 180 kW and capable of charging two trucks simultaneously in approximately two hours. The chargers integrated with a renewable energy microgrid that included 1,200 kW of rooftop solar, 250 kW of carport solar, 3 MWh of battery storage, and 1,500 kW of backup generation capacity.
Funding came from multiple California grant programs: HVIP (Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project), MSRC (Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee), and the Last Mile Freight Program. The project was described as an industry-first renewable energy microgrid specifically designed for fleet charging operations. It was completed in 2023.
The technical scope required coordinating construction and system integration while QCD's trucking operations continued serving Golden State Foods' distribution requirements. The microgrid had to balance solar generation, battery dispatch, grid power, and backup generation to maintain reliable charging availability for the entire electric truck fleet.
The Multi-Stakeholder Integration Challenge
This project reveals what happens when charging infrastructure becomes part of a larger energy system rather than a standalone service.
The product team had to integrate InControl charging management software with Scale Microgrid's renewable energy control systems, utility demand response requirements, and QCD's fleet dispatch operations. Each stakeholder had different optimization goals: Scale wanted to maximize solar utilization, the utility needed demand charge management, and QCD required guaranteed vehicle availability for distribution routes.
This created a design constraint that pure charging companies don't typically face: the charging system couldn't be optimized solely for charging efficiency. It had to operate as one component within a complex energy management system that also managed solar production variability, battery state of charge, utility rate structures, and backup generation dispatch.
The 16-charger deployment was sized specifically for QCD's 30-truck fleet and operational patterns—roughly two trucks per charger with staggered charging schedules. This ratio came from analyzing route patterns, dwell times, and daily utilization rather than applying a standard industry formula. Oversizing the charger count would have wasted capital and added electrical energy demand; undersizing would have created vehicle availability problems when maintenance or charger failures occurred.
The grant funding added another product constraint: compliance with multiple programs meant tracking and reporting requirements for renewable energy utilization, emissions reductions, and operational performance. The InControl platform needed to generate data in formats that satisfied grant administrators while still providing QCD's operations team with actionable fleet management information.
The project's completion in 2023—roughly a year after announcement—reflects the complexity of coordinating utility interconnection, construction sequencing, and commissioning for a system where solar panels, batteries, chargers, and backup generators all had to work together before any trucks could start operating on electricity.