SP Energy Networks (SPEN) has officially launched the Charge Project’s ConnectMore Interactive Map (CIM).
The free online tool allows users such as local councils, site owners, property developers and chargepoint operators to identify where public electric vehicle (EV) charging demand is likely to be high as well as where it can be accommodated by the electricity network with the minimum need for new cables.
It works by evaluating the potential demand by area for public EV charging and the likely ease of the connection onto the existing electrical network in that area.
The tool is designed to identify the optimum locations for EV chargepoint installation and help inform rollout strategy by enabling the two datasets to be viewed together on an interactive map.
Anticipated EV demand data within the map is shown according to four future scenarios, with these based on differing assumptions about EV uptake and chargepoint availability. It is displayed in five year increments from 2025 to 2050.
The CIM forms part of the Charge Project, an initiative from SPEN and its partners EA Technology, PTV Group and Smarter Grid Solutions designed to accelerate the rollout of public EV charging infrastructure across Cheshire, Merseyside, North Shropshire, and North and Mid-Wales.
The map is part of the larger ConnectMore toolset currently being developed by the Charge Project, which is to help businesses and local authorities to identify suitable sites for new chargepoints and estimate the cost of connecting them to the network.
Geoff Murphy, lead for the Charge Project at SP Energy Networks, said that previously, local authorities and businesses have been put off of EV charging because establishing the feasibility of installations and expected demand has been too time consuming and complicated.
“The CIM could change that forever by quickly delivering the hard evidence that’s needed to get chargepoint projects off the ground.”
Earlier this year, Murphy explained in a guest blog for Current± how more than incentives alone will be required to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles with the sector currently being in a ‘chicken & egg’ situation.
