Given my role at London Councils representing London’s 33 local authorities, I will focus on what London is doing; specifically, the ‘London Go Ultra Low Cities Scheme’ (GULCS) but will also look to the wider network management and operations implications of electric vehicles.

The main driver for a focus on electric vehicles is London’s air pollution: more than half of Londoners say their health has been impacted by poor air quality. Tackling air quality should be a priority according to 62 per cent of Londoners. And private motor vehicles are seen as the main cause of pollution in London.

As well as responsibilities for managing air quality, local authorities have a highway network management duty, so it is an important lens through which to look when we consider the wider adoption of electric vehicles.

GULCS is a Government initiative led by the Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) set-up to support the take up of ultra-low emissions vehicles. The London GULCS is the result of a joint bid put forward by the Greater London Authority , Transport for London and London Councils for OLEV funding.

There are four work streams on the project: residential; neighbourhoods of the future; car clubs; and rapid charge points.

The London Go Ultra Low City Scheme has an ambitious goal to make London the ultra-low emission vehicle capital of Europe.

London offers a huge market opportunity for car manufactures and also for electric vehicle charging point companies. The scheme covers a wide range of geography – from the busy urban centres to the vast suburban neighbourhoods but also very rural areas in the outer London boroughs – so the project will deliver wider lessons for the rest of the UK.

In terms of funding, there has been £13.2 million from OLEV until 2020 with match funding from operators and boroughs to bring the total to at least £20 million investment. I will briefly describe each work stream:

Residential - Two thirds of Londoners do not have access to off-street parking. Most of the EVs purchased by people are by those who have off-street parking. However, to see an uptake of EVs we have to provide facilities for those who do not have off-street parking. We have to give them the confidence that they can charge their car when they park their car on the street. There are of course other options such as off-street hubs for charging, but residential on-street charging needs to be addressed, as we know that EV owners do currently prefer to charge overnight whilst at home.

A large part of the overall investment from the GULCS scheme is focused on charge points for residents. There are two ways we are doing this: one way is by installing a stand-alone charge point with a dedicated power supply; the second is whereby you adapt existing infrastructure – typically through lighting columns – i.e. you retrofit a socket to a column (or other street furniture). The latter is a lower cost option and gives the opportunity to flood a street with charging points (obviously this does depend on having the street lighting column on the road side). These are slow charging facilities, and most existing power grids can accommodate the load from these.

We have 24 of the 32 London Boroughs involved with phase one of the Residential work stream of GULCS. We kicked around ideas of how best to deliver this and decided that a procurement framework approach would be best. Companies such as Polar, Siemens, Source London, Allego, Swarco and JoJu Charging and Char.gy are on the framework.

The second work stream ‘Neighbourhoods of the Future’ involves some really exciting and innovative stuff. BBC Breakfast recently covered one such scheme called ‘Electric Streets’ and ULEV priority restrictions. This involves our first ultra-low emission vehicle only streets. Other areas involve supporting new skills sets, such as one in Harrow that is looking at mechanic training for ULEVs. Another involves Heathrow airport – a traffic authority in its own right – that is trialling some dual-fuel hydrogen-diesel HGVs.

There is a question of how technology moves forward, and a rightful concern raised at the panel meeting is that, given the pace of change of technology, that the infrastructure put in becomes obsolete. There are developments with induction charging for example. There could also be breakthroughs with battery technology and although experts say they are a way away, solid-state batteries might be developed . But car manufactures are working with existing infrastructure, so, in this regard, we are largely focusing on the plug and play approach to support a more immediate uptake of electric vehicles. There are good reasons for this.

For most journeys in London – given average use - electric vehicles would need to be charged only once a week. And, experience shows that once people have started using electric vehicles, they do not experience problems being able to charge. However, this is at least partly due to the fact that existing charging infrastructure is currently under-utilised, so there is actually spare capacity. But this should quickly begin to change as more people make the leap, so we need to provide more infrastructure to encourage them to do so.

The third work stream is providing charge points in car club bay. Car Club use is growing in London and although a shift to more active and sustainable travel modes is preferred, encouraging shared use of motor vehicles encourages people to give up their private cars. Reducing car ownership reduces car use; if you own a car you are more likely to use it for journeys that you could otherwise do on foot, by bike or bus. So we support car clubs and we support EV car clubs. EU state aid rules have limited funding for charge points to 200,000 euros for each car club operator, but the programme is making progress.

Finally, rapid charging. We believe we need a mixture of charging: the trickle charge will work when you are at home at night but there could be times when you need to use a rapid charge points for a faster turnaround. For delivery drivers and taxis – 80% charge in 20 minutes via a 50kW plus charger – a faster turnaround is essential. As of January, this year every new registered taxi in London has to be zero emissions capable. Therefore, rapid charging is really important for London, as there is a strong need to have the charging infrastructure in place to support the taxi industry.

This brings me to the final part of how London is preparing more widely. The Mayor has set up an Electric Vehicle Task Force. This Task Force is made up of all key stakeholders – including the freight industry, the car manufactures, the power supply industry, the Deputy Mayor for Environment, OLEV and the boroughs represented by myself. What this is doing is bringing together all the key people to discuss what the barriers are to EV adoption across the city, to identify solutions and to inform the Mayor’s strategy. This is led by Dr Colin Herron, MD at Zero Carbon Futures and a Professor at Newcastle University.

Issues being considered include the public safety concern around powerful electricity charging points on the street and trailing cables posing a trip hazard. There are other issues – narrow footways, cluttered streets and appearance of charging points illustrate some of the issues above ground. However, underneath the surface is often even more crowded with utilities, cellars, tree routes etc., so connecting in new electricity supply is another challenge.

The power issue is significant. One of the realities is that if your proposed load on the grid puts it over the capacity then you have to pay for the upgrade to the grid: this can make the cost of some desired charge point locations prohibitive. So this issue needs to be addressed.

The economics are interesting and market models are also being looked at. It is hoped that take-up increases to the extent that this infrastructure will be self-financing and provide an income for the charging companies but through concession contracting arrangements, public authorities may also share this revenue.

What are the issues for network management operations? Some we touched on in our panel discussion are parking policy, pricing, the introduction and enforcement of low emissions zones and planning approvals.

Planning is interesting and there has been a debate about how authorities treat the installation of charging points. Some authorities are using permitted development rights (these are used already when putting in certain infrastructure e.g. bus shelters). Some local authorities have been content to use these rights when putting in EV charging points. But others authorities have gone through the full planning process. So there is a tension here. This, in my personal opinion (and shared by London Councils), should be locally led as they best understand their streets and what their business and residents want.

But is it right that an electric future depends so much on public infrastructure to refuel private vehicles? This certainly isn’t the case currently with petrol stations being on private land and privately run. This is a new responsibility and burden for local authorities at a time when budgets and resources are already stretched. However, until confidence grows and take up increases there is clearly a need for public intervention. There are signs that change is afoot - BP has recently purchased Chargemaster and I expect supermarkets and other businesses will begin to consider the commercial opportunities of installing rapid charging infrastructure, not necessarily to profit from the energy used but to draw and keep people in their stores, as they do with cheap petrol currently. While you wait for your 20-minute rapid charge you can see the business opportunity: plugging the customer into retail and coffee shops and other income streams.

The panel also raised the potential problem of vehicles queuing for on-street charge points causing obstruction and congestion. This may be partly tackled by app-based technology telling users which point are available or allowing pre-booking but is certainly an issue that needs to be monitored.

As we move towards a more electric future it is essential that we all learn from each other both nationally and internationally. All authorities involved in the London GULCS project are committed to share their experiences.

The CIHT Network Management and Operations panel is actively focusing on the issues above and other issues such as air quality and street works. If you are a CIHT member, with knowledge of and an interest in network management and would like to join the panel please email technical@ciht.org.uk

Spencer Palmer - CIHT Network Management Operations Panel Chair

Spencer Palmer - CIHT Network Management Operations Panel Chair