G4S Utility Services and POD Point, the electric vehicle charging specialists, have been awarded a two year contract by One North East to supply and install Smart Metres and Electric Vehicle charging points in the North East of England.
The scheme, part of the region’s ‘Charge your Car’ project, is sponsored by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and will see up to 1,000 charging points in place by March 2013 across the region, from Northumberland to County Durham. As well as providing the Smart Metering technology and infrastructure, the project will assess data about the impact of plug-in vehicles on energy use and the electricity distribution network.
The partnership with POD Point means G4S will provide installation and maintenance expertise, with POD Point providing hi-tech home charging points. A unique interface has been developed by the two companies to monitor the effects on energy usage of innovative tariff structures – fundamental in the development of smart grid responses needed to accompany the widespread introduction of plug-in vehicles.
“G4S Utility Services and POD Point provide a partnership of the highest calibre,” said Kim Challis, Managing Director from G4S Utility Services. “G4S is the leading provider of smart metering solutions in the UK and we are delighted to be able to bring our Smart metering expertise to the Electric Vehicle industry. Working together with POD Point, the leading supplier of electric vehicle charging solutions, we are able to combine our excellence and produce a robust solution that meets the requirements of this exciting project.”
“This project addresses a topic that POD Point is actively involved with – investigating the impact on the grid of significant numbers of EVs, and how this impact can be reduced and potentially neutralised with innovative charging and smart meter technologies,” said Erik Fairbairn, Chief Executive of POD Point. “The partnership with G4S and ONE North East is an exciting opportunity for us to demonstrate the huge potential of the technology, and how essential it will become as EV numbers increase.”
The UK must ensure 20 per cent of all cars are electric by 2020 in order to comply with EU environmental targets. OLEV predicts that up to 100,000 charging points will need to be installed nationally over the next four years, at an estimated cost of £300million.
SMMT’s Electric Vehicle Guide 2011 can be downloaded here.
