Following the recent article in The Times (link below) electrical vehicle chargers could be centrally switched off during peak times, UK Green Energy Installations looks into what this could mean, how it will happen and what impact this will have on car charging.
How much time do you need to charge your vehicle?
The average EV Vehicle has a battery of approximately 60 KWh, with the standard home charger being 7 KW. This would then take 8.5 hours of charge to go from 0% to 100%. However, it is normally recommended to charge to only 80-90% by your vehicle manufacturer and it is unlikely that your vehicle would be at 0% charge to begin with.
With a vehicle that’s set to charge after 10pm, and then charged for approximately 8.5 hours overnight, would mean the battery is fully charged before 06:30am, ready for the average commute to work or school.
As energy suppliers are offering good off-peak rates, it would be beneficial to take advantage of this and use cheaper rates at night to charge / top-up your vehicle.
How it is likely to occur
To be applicable for the government grant, your electric vehicle charger must be on a list of approved EVHS units - see the link below:
These approved EVHS (Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme) units include smart technology that can connect to the internet via SIM or Wi-Fi. Using this part of the charger’s technology may allow the government to have control of your charger, switching it off temporarily if peak demand on energy starts to exceed the capacity of local supplier’s equipment.
Will everyone be affected?
If you opt not to purchase a ‘Smart Charger’ and prefer to use a key operated charger without connectivity, you are unlikely to be affected. These chargers have no communication built-in and can simply be operated by a key. There are no internal elements to monitor its usage and the charger is the sole responsibility of the user plugging in their vehicle.
We install Smart Chargers and key operated chargers without connectivity for the home or the office: carcharge.uk/productsoverview
This Smart Charger from Myenergi not only benefits from connectivity but it can also be configured to be utilised with solar panels.
The Securicharge solution from Rolec has no smart connectivity and simply utilises a key to switch the unit on and off.