New EV chargepoint regulations are coming soon. But what does this mean for home chargers?
The government has announced that the new Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 will come into force on the 30th June 2022, with further security requirements following at the end of the year.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasingly popular in the UK, fuelled by a surge in demand for plug-in hybrids and especially battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
The grid will have plenty of capacity to meet the higher electricity demand, as long as we smooth charging out so that not everyone is charging at the same time, or when the supply of (cleaner/cheaper) electricity is too low. As most charging is expected to take place at homes, the government has brought in these new rules to ensure the nation’s electrical grid is managed intelligently.
Thankfully our internal data on usage patterns shows that there is a lot of flexibility in home charging, meaning it can be smoothed out without leaving drivers unexpectedly short on charge.
To make sure we comply with these new regulations, we’re releasing some new features and updates over the next month or so, which means you might notice some changes to your Pod Point homecharger and the Pod Point App.
Once a home chargepoint is linked to a Pod Point App account via Wi-Fi for the first time, a default off-peak charge schedule will be set automatically.
As a result, when your EV is plugged in it will automatically charge during the following times, when there’s typically less demand on the grid:
This default setting means that your vehicle won’t charge outside of these times; your Solo’s status light will be a solid yellow which indicates a charge schedule is set. However, you can set your own schedule or turn off the scheduling feature using the Pod Point App to charge outside these times.
With new updates to the Pod Point App, you’ll be able to see the following stats for your Solo:
This new charge duration information will only be available for charges made from the 4th of April.
Note: Pod Point energy measurements sent over the Wi-Fi network have been tested to be accurate to within 10%. Some inaccuracy may occur from periods of network unavailability.
Every time an EV starts to charge using a schedule, there will now be a “random delay” of up to 10 minutes* so your scheduled charge won’t start straight away.
The benefit of the randomised delay is it protects the electricity grid and local electricity substations from surges in demand. This stops every home chargepoint from activating simultaneously at the beginning of common off peak energy tariff periods or other unplanned events, such as a loss of connectivity or when power returns after an outage.
Whilst this does mean you may lose out on a few minutes of lower electricity rate, if you need to; you can override the random delay by either:
These regulations apply to workplace and residential settings. Public charging and rapid chargepoints are excluded.
Some of the changes will be enabled via updates to the Pod Point App; this means they will apply to all new and existing homechargers linked to an App account. These include:
However, this feature will (for the foreseeable future) be exclusive to newly installed chargepoints:
To override the random delay, you can either disable the schedule temporarily, or unplug your EV and reconnect it to the charger.
You will have received a statement of compliance with your homecharger to confirm this.
Compliance with the legislation is mandatory for chargepoint manufacturers. We will work closely with the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) which runs and enforces the regulatory system for product safety and standards in the UK. For questions on whether specific product features are compliant with the legislation, questions can be raised with Pod Point or directly with the OPSS.
This article was originally published by Pod Point.
Use the form opposite to get in touch with Pod Point directly to discuss any requirements you might have.