Electric vehicle (EV) charging provider Mer, has expanded and upgraded King’s College London’s EV charging network after winning the contract put out to tender by the university.
Improvements included replacing old chargepoints with smart chargers, networking all chargers as well as providing access to monitoring and reporting data via a back-office system.
In addition, Mer identified the utilisation rates of existing chargers by conducting a site survey at King’s, whilst also locating “optimal locations” for more chargepoints to be installed.
Overall, 15 AC fast chargers, ranging from 7kW to 22kW, were installed by Mer across the King’s estate including the new sports centre at Honor Oak Park in South London.
The partnership will also allow King’s to set multiple tariffs according to use cases, such as providing free charging for fleet vehicles or subsidised charging for employees.
“King’s was an early adopter of EV charging, but those older chargers were very limited in terms of the information they could provide,” said Stevie Jones, associate consultant for fleet and workplace charging at Mer.
“We swapped out this older infrastructure for smart chargers that can be networked and easily managed via our Mer Connect platform. This gives the sustainability team full visibility of who is using the chargers and when, as well as providing data on the carbon saved compared to using diesel vehicles.”
The King’s partnership follows Mer’s announcement last year that it would provide more than 300 chargepoints to British Garden Centres.