National Grid Energy Distribution will grow its private electric vehicle (EV) charging network, to drive its fleet electrification scheme.
The £13m investment will see 182 EV charging bays added, across 83 substations and eight offices, for a total of 444 chargers across NGED’s locations.
The company, which covers energy distribution across the Midlands, South Wales, and the South West, operates a fleet of more than 1,000 EVs, including 600 cars and 400 vans.
Ian Smith, head of operations support at National Grid Energy Distribution, said: “We’re committed to providing a strategically located charging infrastructure to enable us to grow our decarbonised fleet, while at the same time maintaining an excellent standard of service to our 20 million customers.
“Using substations as charging locations makes logistical and financial sense as a way of expanding our network for NGED EV drivers, who are out and about seven days a week and often operating in severe weather.”
The charger sites were selected by analysing the most frequently travelled urban and rural routes by NGED workers.
Smith said: “Combined with new charge facilities at depots across our region from Lincoln to Llanfihangel-ar-arth, we’re aiming to give our teams flexibility on where they can top-up their charge, minimising range anxiety.
“In turn this will reduce unnecessary travel time while maximising speed of response for our customers.
“This investment brings to life our drive to net zero and for operational staff to be no more than 10 miles from a reliable NGED-operated EV charger.”
NGED’s EV fleet includes Ford Explorers, as well as the Skoda Enyaq AWD van, which was developed specifically for NGED, and is now offered to other customers.
Rock Power Connections has been entrusted with installing the charging infrastructure.
Chris Rigby, senior EV project manager at Rock Power Connections, said: “We are very proud to be delivering this project for NGED to enable their transition to an electrified fleet as part of their decarbonisation programme.
“Working across all four licence areas, managing civil operations and installing both HV and LV apparatus, we have been able to establish a network of high power DC chargers for their fleet.
“We have a long-standing working relationship with NGED, and we look forward to continuing that as we build towards a more sustainable future.”
