EV Charging – a structured approach

At the end of February 2022, there were more than 780,000 plug-in electric vehicles registered in the UK.

The growth in consumer demand brought about by the greater availability of vehicles and government support is having to be met by a UK EV charging point infrastructure that continues to develop as companies seek to play their part in decarbonising the economy.

Take the Motor Fuel Group (MFG) as an example, the UK’s leading independent forecourt operator is investing c.£400 million in Ultra-Rapid 150kW and 350kW EV Chargers (“Ultra-Rapid 150kW and 350kW EV Chargers”) across its network (currently 918 sites) in the next decade.

MFG will install a total of c.3,000 Ultra-Rapid 150kW and 350kW EV Chargers at c.500 sites by the end of 2030.

London has Lion’s share of EV Charging points

Overall, more than 50,000 charging points exist in the UK at nearly 19,000 different locations, a third of which are in the Greater London Area, according to zap-map.com.

Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) are inundated with enquiries to add load to their networks and it’s important to ensure they are armed with the right information to understand the needs of the consumer and facilitate any subsequent supply upgrade requests.

At Energy Management, we have a dedicated team that has proven experience in the rollout of EV charging infrastructure for businesses.

Here’s our step-by-step guide to the process:\

Pre-installation survey/review

• Identify site locations where EV chargers will be installed, please provide plan of site showing charger locations
• Identify how many and what size chargers are to be installed at each site
• Confirm charger make and model. Data relating to harmonics may be required by some DNOs
• Confirm operational mode 1, 2, 3, 4
• Calculate the extra electricity capacity required to install EV chargers
• Confirm constrained or unconstrained operation (capacity limited at certain times of the day)
• Identify the “Available Capacity” for each site (this will be taken from the “Connection Agreement”)
• Download HH data for each site and calculate the maximum demand in KVA
• Calculate if there is enough capacity to install EV charging using the existing connection agreement
• For many sites, we will need to request extra capacity from the DNO
• For some sites a new dedicated supply might be the better option

What next?

Electricity Supply – No Capacity Upgrade Required

If an existing electricity supply can be used to feed the EV charger/s, there will be no requirement to request a change to the connection agreement; however, an Energy Networks Association (ENA) Notification form will need to be submitted to the local DNO to confirm it can be connected to the network regardless of capacity. 

Electricity Supply – Capacity Upgrade Required

Where a connection agreement requires uplifting to a level where EV charging can be supported, we will submit an application to the local DNO and also complete the ENA form. A request will be made to see if the extra power calculated to support the site can be secured and how much the upgrade will cost.

The quotation will provide the cost for “contestable work” such as trenching and “non-contestable work” such as connecting to the electricity network. To date, we have received quotations ranging from £3,500 to £80,000 depending on the scale of the job.

This would also be applicable should the EV charger have its own supply from the DNO rather than a connection from the existing supply.

Connection of New Supply

To enable a larger capacity agreement, the amount of work to secure this will vary, as highlighted below.

• Paperwork exercise – no physical works
• Fuse upgrade – the DNO will increase incoming fuse sizes, there could be upgrades to customer switchgear required to match.
• Complete upgrade of DNO’s incoming mains position, this will require physical works for both DNO and customers electrical contractor.

The final option is almost certainly going to result in the disconnection of the old supply and the installation of a new one. 

Where this is the case, the old supply identification number (MPAN) will be replaced with a new MPAN. A meter operator contract, data aggregator/collector contract and a new electricity supply contract will be procured a minimum of 8 weeks before the electricity supply is to be connected.

Even if the old electricity supply contract has a long duration left to run, a new contract will be produced using current wholesale energy rates and non-commodity costs. At present this can be an uplift of 90%.

If you would like to know more about our EV installation infrastructure service, please get in touch with Stuart Newbury on 01225-867722 or email sn@usrjonn