I refer to the consultation and draft report on Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure and would like to provide some additional information from SP Energy Networks perspective in North and Mid Wales.

Unfortunately my colleague Nicol Gray was asked to attend a workshop consultation last year but he was unable to attend so it seems we missed the opportunity to input into the initial draft of this report.

The SP Manweb licence area of SP Energy Networks is the electrical DNO for North and Mid Wales, and we cover the area down to Llanidloes and just below Aberystwyth. It is essential that  we facilitate the transition from petrol and diesel vehicles to EVs, and help governments to meet their climate change targets and cities to achieve the health benefits of improved air quality.

Please can you ensure that any references to the transmission operator National Grid and the DNO for South Wales also include reference to SPEN as the DNO for North Wales. We would also like to take this opportunity to provide the information below about a new electric vehicle project CHARGE that we have received £6.8million funding from Ofgem’s Network Innovation Competition.

CHARGE is our new innovation EV project, which aims to accelerate the wide-scale adoption of electric vehicles and help meet the UK Government’s ambitious climate change and air pollution targets in our SP Manweb licence area. The Network Innovation Competition funded project which will be trialled in Merseyside, Cheshire, North Shropshire and North and Mid Wales.

CHARGE will merge transport and electricity network planning to create an over-arching map of where EV charge points will be required and where they can be accommodated by the electricity distribution network. The correlation between the road network and the electricity network is not well understood. Where there is transport capacity, it does not necessarily mean there is electrical capacity as these networks have, in the past, developed entirely independently of each other. CHARGE will aim to put these two networks together and find an optimal solution for EV drivers.

The increasing demand from EVs on the electricity networks accelerates the need to develop new connections solutions and improved ways to deliver network flexibility. CHARGE will help us develop clear guidance and connection standards to expedite the uptake of EVs. This will facilitate better planning of electricity networks and will provide vital information for all sectors involved in helping the transition to low carbon transport and create a cleaner, greener environment for all.

Welsh Government is one of our key stakeholders for CHARGE, and have been involved with this project since the early stages through to currently aligning areas of North and Mid Wales that would be suitable trial locations for the pilot stages of the project.

During the first year of the project by the end of 2019 we will establish a high level transport and electrical network map for the SP Manweb licence area that will highlight suggested areas where there is available capacity for commercial EV Charging Point locations.

We will also continue to develop EV partnerships across North and Mid Wales to assist rural communities in particular to transition to a low carbon future, and we will be disseminating information to our customers on how to connect EV charging points with particular emphasis on community groups who may be first time customers and therefore less knowledgeable about our connection processes.