Gridserve is developing 350-kilowatt (kW) chargers that can charge a 100-mile vehicle in five minutes. Photo: JUSTIN TULLIS/AFP
The CEO of one of Britain's largest electric vehicle charging companies says delays in connecting to the electricity grid have forced the company to rely on batteries and generators to power the vehicles.
Toddington Harper, chief executive Gridserve, said slow network connections meant his company had to get «creative» in rolling out new power-hungry fast charging stations.
A powerful grid connection for its chargers could take years to be approved.
Meanwhile, Gridserve has connected its chargers to battery packs and vegetable oil generators to fill the gap, offering extra supply when needed, but at a higher price than electricity from the network.
“There are some sites that take longer than we would like. And so we had to do some creative things in some places,” Mr. Harper said.
“Yes, it's expensive. But we're looking at a lifetime, and if you only need to implement solutions like this for a few months while we wait for some of the more complex network connections to go through, then that means we can get the sites up and running.»
Gridserve's troubles are the latest evidence that long grid connection delays are holding back net zero and efforts to increase renewable energy supplies.
Octopus Energy, one of the UK's largest domestic suppliers, told the Telegraph last week the company was facing delays of up to 13 years in connecting its renewable energy projects to the grid. As a result, the company said it was struggling to invest £28 billion in environmental projects.
Companies that both supply and consume large volumes of electricity rely both on connection approval from the National Grid, which balances supply and demand, and from local distribution networks, which provide the on-ground infrastructure.
Other types of electric vehicle charging. bosses are privately angry at how slow local operators are to approve new sites. The UK consists of many distribution networks owned by pension funds and other investors who operate local networks, each with its own bureaucracy.
Network companies «want to help» but «some are more efficient» at connecting to the Internet than others, Mr Harper said. The grid is older and designed for more forgiving requirements.
Gridserve is in the process of introducing 350-kilowatt (kW) chargers that will be able to power a battery-powered vehicle with a range of 100 miles in five minutes of charging after installing new-generation car batteries .
Charging time will bring the refueling time of electric vehicles much closer to the refueling time of gasoline cars.
Motorists traveling long distances, or those who don't have a drive where they can charge parked cars at night, rely on public chargers, finding time to recharge a key stumbling block for many considering going electric.
0104 Electric vehicle infrastructure struggles to keep up
Charging with a so-called 22kW fast public charger today can take around an hour to achieve the same range offered by Gridserve's 350kW chargers in five minutes.
Faster chargers mean fewer are needed because they can quickly serve many customers.
However, chargers require huge bursts of power, putting a huge strain on the local grid for relatively short periods of time.
< p>Gridserve launched 100 of its high power charging stations across the UK last year and has already opened a further 100 this year.
Mr Harper said many of Gridserve's sites came online following electricity applications. access to the grid many years ago.
Where demand is growing fastest but applications are delayed, the company is turning to alternatives such as generators and batteries. Gridserve's generators burn vegetable oil, which is considered a cleaner alternative to diesel because it is renewable.
Gridserve's Cornwall facility has a 100kW grid connection, unable to power even a single 350kW charger. But it powers a 1 MW battery capable of storing about 4,000 miles of charge.
The site also has 60 kW solar panels providing chargers, and a 1 MW solar power plant is planned nearby to increase power .
Mr Harper said: “We have found that the solar and public charging mix is very diverse. similar. Public charging occurs at the same time during the day as solar power.”
The UK's electricity network is struggling to cope with rising demand for connections as the country moves to net zero emissions. . The number of public charging stations alone has more than tripled in four years, from 10,300 in 2019 to more than 45,500 today, including 8,600 fast chargers.
National Grid said it was “accelerating grid connection times” and are working with the Electricity System Operator (ESO), transmission owners and distribution network operators (DNOs) to introduce new ways to speed up this process.»
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt last week opened the country's largest electric vehicle charging station . in Birmingham. Gigahub, located at the city's NEC campus, is capable of charging 180 vehicles simultaneously.
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