Just like every other part of government, local authorities are currently trying to figure out how to help the UK reach its 2050 carbon net zero aspirations. One way of doing this is to encourage more people into electric vehicles (EVs) – but this requires a significant increase in the number of public chargepoints, whether that’s on-street, in car parks, or at retail and leisure destinations.
The Policy Exchange think-tank released a report last year which stated that, to meet the anticipated EV charging demand that the end of petrol/diesel-based vehicle sales will create, we need 400,000 public chargepoints by 2030, compared to the 33,000 that currently exist.
Yet a recent Freedom of Information request by the electrotechnical and engineering services body ECA found that two-thirds of local authorities have no plans for installing public chargepoints, with over a half also claiming that chargepoints were prohibitively expensive to install. And with a sector that’s potentially as volatile and unpredictable as the EV market, forward planning is difficult – where’s the best place to install chargepoints, and how much will they cost?
For the past three years, SP Energy Networks’ Charge Project has been focused on addressing these issues, and in collaboration with its partners EA Technology, PTV Group and Smarter Grid Solutions, has been conducting a series of trials and analyses in the company’s Manweb licence area: Cheshire, Merseyside, North Shropshire, and North and Mid-Wales.
The Charge Project’s key output so far has been ‘ConnectMore’, an innovative free-to-use online EV planning tool that can help local authorities and other stakeholders to both identify the optimal location for chargepoints and get an instant quote for how much it will cost to connect them to the electricity network.
There are two key elements to ConnectMore:
The ConnectMore Interactive Map combines current and future transport patterns with existing network capacity in the Manweb region, and enables informed predictions to be made – covering the period 2025-2050 – about where demand for chargepoints will be highest, as well as identifying where their installation can be accommodated by the electricity network with the minimum need for new cables or equipment.
Once optimal locations have been identified, the ConnectMore EV Connection Cost Estimator can provide immediate estimations of the cost to connect chargepoints to a specific point on the electricity network. By trying out different options regarding the location, ground type, distance, existing demand constraints, potential network reinforcement work, and size of the connection, the tool can be used to identify the most cost-effective chargepoint connection.
John Orr, Design Engineer, SP Energy Networks, and Charge Project Lead, comments: “The ConnectMore Cost Estimator is another significant step forward in fulfilling our mission of accelerating EV chargepoint roll-out. ConnectMore is designed to make this process as quick and easy as possible, from beginning to end. Now, users can go from identifying the best chargepoint locations to getting a connection quote in a matter of minutes. Having budgetary information like this at your fingertips is a major boon when progressing EV charging projects.”
Establishing a ‘business case’ for chargepoint installation is not always easy, and is a major reason why local authorities continue to be put off from investing in public charging infrastructure. Up to now, establishing demand, feasibility and cost has often been too time-consuming and complex a process. This is what the Charge Project – and ConnectMore – is trying to change, by accelerating this process from months to hours.
The EV revolution is coming, and local authorities have to be ready for it. By quickly delivering the hard evidence that’s needed to get projects off the ground, we believe that ConnectMore is a potential game changer for public chargepoint installation, and can also play an important role in helping us all enjoy a cleaner, greener future.
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