What are the new EV chargepoint regulations?
On the 30th June, the government’s new Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 came into force, with further security requirements following at the end of the year.
What’s all this about, then?
Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasingly popular in the UK, fuelled by a surge in demand for plug-in hybrids and especially battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
The grid will have plenty of capacity to meet the higher electricity demand, as long as we smooth charging out so that not everyone is charging at the same time, or when the supply of (cleaner/cheaper) electricity is too low. As most charging is expected to take place at homes, the government has brought in these new rules to ensure the nation’s electrical grid is managed intelligently.
Thankfully our internal data on usage patterns shows that there is a lot of flexibility in home charging, meaning it can be smoothed out without leaving drivers unexpectedly short on charge.
Are Pod Point homechargers compliant?
To make sure we're compliant with the new regulations, we've released some new features and updates. You may notice some changes to your Pod Point home charger and the Pod Point app listed below.
1. Charge scheduling by default
Once a home chargepoint is linked to a Pod Point App account via Wi-Fi for the first time, a default off-peak charge schedule will be set automatically.
?As a result, when your EV is plugged in it will automatically charge during the following times, when there’s typically less demand on the grid:
This default setting means that your vehicle won’t charge outside of these times; your Solo’s status light will be a solid yellow which indicates a charge schedule is set. However, you can set your own schedule or turn off the scheduling feature using the Pod Point App to charge outside these times.
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2. Charge duration stats update
With new updates to the Pod Point App, you’ll be able to see the following stats for your Solo:
This new charge duration information will only be available for charges made from the 4th of April.
Note: Pod Point energy measurements sent over the Wi-Fi network have been tested to be accurate to within 10%. Some inaccuracy may occur from periods of network unavailability.
3. Randomised delay to schedule start
Every time an EV starts to charge using a schedule, there will now be a “random delay” of up to 10 minutes so your scheduled charge won’t start straight away.
The benefit of the randomised delay is it protects the electricity grid and local electricity substations from surges in demand. This stops every home chargepoint from activating simultaneously at the beginning of common off peak energy tariff periods or other unplanned events, such as a loss of connectivity or when power returns after an outage.
Whilst this does mean you may lose out on a few minutes of lower electricity rate, if you need to; you can override the random delay by either:
Still have questions??
If you’re wanting to know more about the new regulations take a look at the FAQs here on our blog and see how they apply.?
Any chance of sending out job requests for what you need rather than to the entire country? You're only a little outfit, you haven't shipped anything, so it's unlikely you need a network of design engineers across the country (which wouldn't work anyway - design doesn't work like that, which you'd know if you'd designed or made anything, or had anyone who had there). Just stick one town down for wherever it is you're based and recruit for there, eh?
Operations Director at HEI GROUP LTD
2 年Robert Harper