UK Power Networks (UKPN) is launching a new initiative which sees local councils share data to help target electric vehicle (EV) charger blackspots.
Once these areas have been identified, UKPN will hold a competition to incentivise investors to bid at the lowest cost to deliver priority chargepoints.
Charge Collective will help assess how much of a discount to connect to the electricity network is required to encourage chargepoint installers to invest in areas where the market is struggling to deliver today.
UKPN is currently working with Cambridge City and Cambridgeshire County Councils, Norwich City Council, Norfolk County Council and the London Borough of Redbridge on the project, which is dubbed Charge Collective and has the intention of ensuring everyone has the confidence to switch to EVs regardless of where they live or what parking space they have.
By taking a coordinated approach, UKPN aims to make it more financially viable for chargepoint operators to create a wider network of public chargers, with the potential for the project to scale up across the country if it proves successful.
The scheme will also develop a framework to measure the wider environmental and social benefits of better air quality and reduced emissions that come with increased levels of EVs.
Ian Cameron, head of customer services and innovation at UKPN said that electricity networks have a “key role” in enabling the uptake of EVs, with the project set to “help us discover how we can support our communities to get more charge points into areas that need them at the lowest cost to consumers, ensuring that nobody is left behind”.
