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Plugged-in Places
The first ‘Plugged-in Places’ – London, the North East and Milton Keynes – to qualify for government funding will begin building a charging network for electric vehicles.
First roll-out of ‘Plugged-in Places’ charging point infrastructure announced
In February 2010, the government announced the next stage of its roll-out of a network of electric vehicle hubs, called Plugged-in Places, which will see a charging infrastructure appearing in car parks, major supermarkets, leisure and retail centres, as well as on the street. The first Plugged-in Places are London, Milton Keynes and the North East, and between them they will be installing over 11,000 vehicle recharging points during the next three years.
The Plugged-in Places will provide the charge points to support ‘Plug-in Cars’ - pure electric vehicle (EVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and hydrogen cars. They are intended to demonstrate how electric vehicle charging works in practice in a range of different settings – urban, suburban and regional – as well as testing innovative technologies such as rapid charging, inductive charging and battery swap.
Areas aiming to be at the forefront of the EV market
The experiences of the first three Plugged-in Places will inform the future development of a national charging infrastructure. The first round of Plugged-in Places funding, out of a total of £30m, was open to bids from consortia in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland made up of local authorities, businesses, electricity distributors and suppliers and other organisations like Regional Development Authorities. The consortia had to demonstrate why their area was best suited to be at the forefront of the EV market, for example, through use of local incentives: Milton Keynes, for instance, will be offering ultra-low carbon car drivers in their region free parking and electricity, and London will be waiving the congestion charge. Successful bidders also had to demonstrate how their plans would fit in with other Government objectives, such as improving local air quality, and create local incentives to further encourage the uptake of electric vehicles.
A second competition for Plugged-in Places funding is to follow later 2010, with consortia from the West Midlands, Cornwall, Sheffield, the Lake District, Greater Manchester and Northern Ireland having already confirmed their intention to bid for the next wave of funding.
Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV)
These measures – to be delivered by the Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) – will move the UK further towards its ambitious carbon reduction targets. OLEV will also lead work to join up the Plugged-In Places, working closely with partners including the Energy Technologies Institute and the Technology Strategy Board to ensure a fully interoperable network is established in the UK. OLEV will be assessing the feasibility of charging along strategic corridors with the Highways Agency and motorway service area operators; and of charging infrastructure at railway station parking facilities with the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) and Network Rail.
North East
The North East’s Plugged-In Places initiative includes 1300 charging points, costing £7.8m over three years of which Lead Partner One North East is investing £3.8m, OLEV £2.98m and regional partners just over £1m. The response to this project has been so enthusiastic that One North East is to leave open the fund which offers regional companies and organisations match-funding for charging points - effectively enabling them to install charging points at their premises for half the standard price (around £2,500 instead of around £5,000).
London
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has welcomed government funding that will enable a £28.8m programme to provide electric vehicle charging points to go ahead. The capital has been awarded £9.3m from OLEV for electric vehicle infrastructure which will help around 7500 charging points to be in operation by 2013.
Transport for London expects to deliver 6,000 charging points at work places, 500 on-street, 330 in public car parks, 50 at Tube stations, 140 in supermarket car parks and 120 for car clubs. The Mayor has a target of delivering 25,000 charging points in London by 2015 with the aim that no Londoner should be more than a mile from a charging point by that time.
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes Council has been the lead partner in winning funding of £2.2m over three years from OLEV which will enable an EV charging project totalling £4.9m to go ahead. As well as domestic charge points, there will be 310 on street points, 50 in retail car parks and 62 in work places as well as 8 bus rapid charging points.