EV charging

Wed 17 Jan, 16:29 (last edited on Wed 17 Jan, 17:17)

I was in a meeting today about Local Area Energy Plans which the county is looking at bringing forward. At the moment locally generated energy has to be sold into the grid, but there are discussions in progress about developing local energy distribution in the county.  I referenced Southill as a possible partner in piloting this, though it may be a while before we get there.

Wed 17 Jan, 16:11

Interestingly Southill Solar has had a discussion about the potential to supply EV charging but it is a complex matter, which would involve finding a suitable partner site for EV charging and laying HV cable, amongst other challenges. We would be very happy to hear from anyone with appropriate advice or experience, so please do get in touch.

With regards generation and surplus funds I can say the following:

Southill has consistently generated 5% above it's business model target and is consequently delivering on it's onward investment into the community.

Southill Community Energy has passed on just under £250,000 after it's first 6 years of operation. This includes its s106 obligation to the Thomas Gifford Trust for the Community Centre and the ongoing obligation to the Cotswolds National Landscape. So far £110,000 has been passed to Sustainable Charlbury which manages the grant fund for other low carbon projects in the community, of which £61,000 has already been granted to various organisations. This includes Charlbury Bowls Club and Charlbury Exhibition Foundation for energy efficiency improvements to their buildings, Charlbury School for its Learning for Sustainability programme and Wychwood Paddocks ecological programme, and to the Town Council for the Mill Field wild meadow restoration. Grant funding is currently being given to The Corner House as part of its programme to make the building more energy efficient and comfortable. 

I hope that is both helpful and an interesting update and we look forward to further engagement with the wonderful community we live in for new ideas as to how we can help move Charlbury towards its net zero targets. 

Wed 17 Jan, 01:33

Has consideration the power generated by the south hill solar project , to be used for the purpose of EV charging ? 

Very little is known about this project in current times - but the amount of power that was anticipated, it would be interesting to see if the performance and projected outputs were in line with the quoted figures-  it would easily find a charging station ? See quotation from the proposals

“Profits from Southill Solar will be invested back into the local area through the community benefit society. Forecasts show that we will have on average £30,000 a year to invest locally”

Sun 14 Jan, 22:43 (last edited on Sun 14 Jan, 22:44)

You could try our local:

IGM Electrical Info@igmelectrical.com 01993 705554 07508 886459

I've never used them but you could get a quote.

Sun 14 Jan, 22:39

I have had an EV for about 20 months and a charger was installed about 17 months ago , the need for a home charger, is , in my opinion, necessary for anyone with a busy working and unplanned schedule. The luxury of overnight charging is essential as the use of slow charging and anything over half an hour when away on the road ( for high users ) anything less than 150 kw is rather time consuming. The lack of fast charging ( more than 150 kw ) is lacking in Oxfordshire. 

Sun 14 Jan, 18:17 (last edited on Sun 14 Jan, 20:05)

We used the excellent JoJu solar: https://www.jojusolar.co.uk They tend to specialise in slightly more complex and commercial projects, they had to liaise with the local electricity company as it needed to be a separate supply to our block of garages (which are not near the house).

In terms of charging - Oxfordshire has a good network - as a result of a partnership between different local councils and I'd recommend it. It's called EZ charge who are based in Bicester: https://ez-charge.co.uk Typically EZ Charge have banks of about six chargers (12 charge points) and are located in the public car parks in Witney, Chipping Norton and Woodstock (and elsewhere). Charging costs about 49p/KWh (day) and 42p/KWh at night. 

EZ charge are not the ultra rapid variety (they have a 22KW charging speed - about three times a typical domestic EV charger) - but we found we could put the car on charge, do shopping etc and in the couple of hours when we came back the car would be charged up again. They were reliable and we never had trouble finding a space either. 

Sat 13 Jan, 18:36 (last edited on Sat 13 Jan, 18:38)

I have my own off road ev charging point . And would be happy to recommend the installation company. Please message me via the mailbox. 

Sat 13 Jan, 18:04

Purely out of interest, how many people in Charlbury now have an EV and how many also have their own EV charger?

Sat 13 Jan, 16:24

I would recommend this company to do your charging point. Most installers charge about the same round here. https://cotswold-ev.co.uk/

Sat 13 Jan, 14:02

Hi Chris, if you are thinking of getting solar panels in the future I would recommend a zappi. They can arrange installation. 

Sat 13 Jan, 10:26

Morning, we are moving to Charlbury next week and need to get an EV charger installed. Are there any local companies that I could contact? As the forum states there are chargers  at Chippy that I can use in the short term but regular use is expensive at 78p /kWh. 

Fri 13 Jan 2023, 06:46

Exactly Mark. Even a single high speed charger would be such a big plus. But if we did it and installed a 7kw charger, like at CN Co-op, we would experience the sort of negative situation raised in this thread, where people have to queue or can’t use at all due to somebody using it for hours. They’re basically not fit for purpose.

Fri 13 Jan 2023, 01:02

The installation of the fastest and most powerful charger should be provided , to future proof the anticipated growth of EV users . Both Chipping Norton and Woodstock have embraced this , but with slow and low power outputs . 

Thu 12 Jan 2023, 08:13

Yes, we need both.

Wed 11 Jan 2023, 22:10 (last edited on Sun 15 Jan 2023, 12:05)

Liz, if a suitable speed (50-100kw) was available at Spendlove somebody could charge their car within 15-30mins. Just like we don’t need a petrol pump at home, you’d only use it when you need it. For most people, putting 250 miles on the range would last a few weeks, so many people without drives would benefit. Would rarely be a significant queue, just like there aren’t that often in more populated areas.

Wed 11 Jan 2023, 19:18 (last edited on Wed 11 Jan 2023, 23:38)

I would agree that Spendlove would be a sensible place, along with the Community Centre, train station and perhaps some of the local sports facilities, particularly if they themselves have members with EVs and perhaps EVs of their own at some point in the (near) future...

Wed 11 Jan 2023, 19:09

EV charging points are not just for residents – they are needed for visitors too. We recently had visitors with an EV who had to charge their car in Chippy. The infrastructure needs to be there to support long journeys as well as local ones, which means having points nationwide, regardless of where the owners live. All of which suggests there ought to be EV points at the Spendlove.

Wed 11 Jan 2023, 17:41 (last edited on Wed 11 Jan 2023, 17:51)

Installing a few EV charging points at the Spendlove is a nice idea, but will not help residents without a driveway transition to EVs as it will only allow for a very small number of cars to be charged at any one time.  The pilot that Gary is participating in is, I believe, the way forward, which is why OCC is enthusiastically supporting this.  Future solutions like this will not only allow people to charge their cars outside their houses, but to link them into their home electricity supply.

Hans is right, though, one of the restrictions is the capacity in the national grid, and we do not at the moment have the capacity in Oxfordshire to support a wholesale shift towards EVs and probably won't for the next five years. This isn't about generation - there are lots of plans for renewable energy across the county - it's the lack of investment in grid infrastructure which Ofgem is only now starting to address.

Wed 11 Jan 2023, 15:53

There will soon be a public charging point on Church Street as I am taking part in a UK wide trial of in pavement EV Charging infrastructure.  Should be installed next month.  Anyone will be able to use it but will have to have their own special connector.   Not sure what the charging rate will be at the moment but will probably be 7or 11 Kw.  This should fully charge my BMW i3 in about 4 hours (overnight).  We have an electric car and a petrol car at the moment and the EV is by far the cheapest to run.

Wed 11 Jan 2023, 09:50 (last edited on Wed 11 Jan 2023, 09:59)

Quite a lot of misinformation to unpack there…

EV are absolutely not 2x their equivalent petrol/diesel models, don’t be silly. It’s not cheaper to fill a tank of petrol than to charge at home, don’t be silly. It’s not cheaper to fill a tank of petrol than it is to charge at the vast majority of paid chargers, don’t be silly. @49p/kw you get approx 4 miles, it costs 19p/mile for petrol on average. Only at motorway services and some high speed points is it anywhere near parity.

Who is going to pay for the playground you don’t use, or the hospital you haven’t been to for a decade, or the schools you don’t send kids to? It’s a public amenity, one which would pay for itself as it wouldn’t be a free service. 

Wed 11 Jan 2023, 08:38

We should all be driving electric cars because of the environment. That though requires massive upgrades to the national generating capacity, the national grid and also upgrading supply to houses to 3 phase. None of this is cheap, someone is having the last one done, cost £ 40k. I see no plans for upgrades of the scale required on a national level - instead the work that is being done (or should be done) is to reduce dependence on Russian gas and oil. (We don't use Russian gas, but we can't store gas so we rely on Europe for that). 

The electric cars are about twice as expensive as an equivalent petrol or diesel car (whereas they are much simpler to build). Electricity prices are up 2.5 times, whereas petrol prices are back to where they were. It is actually cheaper to drive a petrol car now IF you charge at home, much worse if you use a public charger.

How many chargers would be needed at the Spendlove car park? Most of the time there are very few spaces free (maybe more in the evening). And who is going to pay for the installation? Town council through taxation? Many will probably think I don't think so, why should I pay for this if I am not going to use it?

Wed 11 Jan 2023, 07:14 (last edited on Wed 11 Jan 2023, 07:31)

@Alex those places will have specific locations where they can be charged, we don’t need a charging point for every available parking bay. But it’s nowhere near enough, especially as many chargers don’t work or are poorly maintained. That’s the big problem we need to avoid by future proofing against what we know is happening with adoption, especially in a rural area where you can’t just open zap map and find somewhere a mile away to wait at. Our nearest are Chipping Norton or Heythrop Park. Consumer adoption of product has been excellent, while provision of infrastructure hasn’t kept pace. There are plans to double the charging network in 2023, which is likely still nowhere near enough. Plans are still in place to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in 7 years time, which is the same gap between now and the Brexit vote; no time at all.

@Tim of course it is possible to charge on the street without creating a trip hazard, if there are chargers provided on the street. It’s impossible to do it with an extension out of your window on a three-pin plug charge, as it is anywhere. However it’s also totally impractical to do that on your drive, as the charge time would be around 100hrs. Anybody you may see doing that basically has 0 range and is putting in enough to get to a working charger. As for your 2nd point/question, right now in the Spendlove there should be two chargers, with plans to add to that in the next 18 months. In the next few years we’ll have to dig up pavements and have numerous on-street options or adapt lampposts at the very least. They’ll need to be some at 75kw+ as a minimum to avoid people needing to sit in their cars for hours on end, waiting for one to become available, as on a standard Pod-Point 7kw charger it takes about 8hrs.

Tue 10 Jan 2023, 23:00

As with most Cotswold towns (where it is impossible to charge on the street without creating a trip hazard), how many charging points would you ideally like to see in the Spendlove car park?

Tue 10 Jan 2023, 22:57

Many towns throughout the uk have street after street without any (or very limited) off-street  parking space. How is it intended that those residents charge their EV. Also, the kWh cost difference of on-street vs off-street (plus the VAT differential) factors in here.

Tue 10 Jan 2023, 20:11 (last edited on Wed 11 Jan 2023, 07:15)

Which is entirely the point of the question. Many people do not have a drive to facilitate a home charger, if they did, that is what they would do. Over the next 7 years hundreds of thousands need to be installed nationwide, the vast majority being in shared public space.

Tue 10 Jan 2023, 20:05

Do you already have an electric  car? I do know private houses have chargers installed which is the forward. 

Tue 10 Jan 2023, 16:00

Does anybody have an idea when Charlbury is getting EV charging stations? For such a green town with relatively few homes having drives for home installation, it seems very odd this hasn’t been facilitated yet. The Spendlove car park looks an ideal location for a couple of 100kw+ chargers. Would no doubt pay for itself and raise money over time too.