New legislation comes into effect this Thursday (30th June) which requires all home and workplace electric vehicle chargers to have smart charging capabilities. The new laws are aimed at helping to manage the strain on the national grid. They will encourage drivers to use smarter tariffs to avoid thousands of EVs charging at once during peak hours, which is usually during the day and evening.
Charlie Cook, the founder of Rightcharge, a site that helps EV drivers install a charge point and save money on their energy bills, said:
“The regulation is an excellent idea because more drivers will become familiar with smart charging, which allows them to easily charge overnight when its cleaner and cheaper. Overnight charging is best for our planet, our pocket and our electricity grid. It cuts energy bills by hundreds per year per household, uses electricity that is 25% cleaner and avoids the need to spend billions of pounds on upgrades to our national grid.
Our cars and our electricity systems have historically been completely disconnected. However, the rise of electric vehicles means the two are now inextricably linked. Charge points are the technology that binds them. And crucially, it’s the software in the charge point that dictates the impact electric cars have on our electricity network. If all drivers have smart charge points that can schedule charging for the cheapest times of day, then our grid will require billions of pounds less in investment to be fit for a 100% EV world. The millions of home charge points that will be installed this decade are a piece of national infrastructure. How well that infrastructure works will be dictated by the decisions of millions of individual homeowners.”
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