Council installing 500 on-street electric vehicle charge points

Barnet Council is making a multi-million pound investment in on-street, residential, electric vehicle (EV) charging spaces.

It will be installing more than 500 charging points, designed to be flat-and-flush with the pavement to enable residents without driveways to charge their EVs easily and locally.

Barnet Council has awarded the contract to Trojan Energy to deliver the £4.65 million project, £3.5m of which was secured in Government grant funding, to boost the number of EV charging points in the borough.

The funding is one of the largest amounts provided through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme, open to local authorities in the UK.

Trojan Energy’s on-street EV charging points will be located across 34 of Barnet’s streets, and will be operational in phases by November 2022 and March 2023. 

Barnet Council environment and climate change committee chair, Cllr Alan Schneiderman, said: “Our scheme to install hundreds more EV charging points is part of our wider sustainability programme to transform Barnet into a net zero borough.

“Supporting electric vehicles will not only help us ensure the air we breathe in Barnet is cleaner, it will also take us the next step closer to becoming a sustainable borough.

“Essential to the success of our programme will be working with partners and our residents and communities to provide the right support and infrastructure that will benefit everyone today who calls Barnet home, as well as preparing for tomorrow’s generation.”

The flat-and-flush charging point design leaves the pavement entirely clear of clutter and fully accessible to other pavement users when not in use.

Customers use a lance which they keep in their possession to connect their vehicle to the charging point at the roadside. These points are linked via underground cables to cabinets, located discreetly up to 100 metres away, which send power to 15 charging units at any one time. 

Trojan Energy will also deploy its Deicer system which allows Barnet EV drivers to obtain real-time charge point availability updates via their mobile phone, either by app or text. 

Ian Mackenzie, CEO of Trojan Energy, said: “We are delighted to be awarded this contract by Barnet. 

“Trojan Energy’s mission has always been to ensure everyone benefits from the energy transition.

“We know that people are four times more likely to own an electric vehicle if they have a driveway but, by rolling out Trojan Energy’s on-street charging points, we are making owning an EV increasingly accessible to the millions of motorists that park on-street without cluttering our streets with permanent charging posts. 

“This is Trojan Energy’s largest contract to date and it puts us firmly in a position to lead the widespread roll-out of clutter free on-street EV charging to urban areas. 

“Our charging points will provide EV charging for 100s of Barnet’s EV drivers and will enable 1000s more to make the switch. This keeps us on track to deliver on our ambitious target to deploy several thousand Trojan Charging Points over the next two to three years.”

Decarbonisation minister Trudy Harrison said: “Our On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme is supporting councils like Barnet up and down the country to install more than 12,000 charging points.

“By making these more accessible to residents, particularly those without a driveway, we can help more and more people make the switch to electric vehicles.

“This plan to install over 500 innovative charging points will help residents make the switch, supporting cleaner air and our journey to net zero.”

Based in Aberdeenshire in the North-East of Scotland, Trojan Energy’s workforce of more than 30 employees has tripled in size over the last year.

The business plans to increase the team to around 60 by the end of 2022 through the creation of new roles including engineering positions, project managers and customer service leads.  Some of these roles will be fulfilled by members of the local community in and around Barnet.

The company was launched in 2016 to create an EV charging system that offers an equal opportunity to all drivers to charge their vehicles near their home, without inconveniencing other pavement users.

It aims to provide immediate, cheap, green energy at up to 22kW and to address the lack of EV charging infrastructure in the urban environment with cost effective systems. 

Trojan Energy last year launched its technology on the streets of the London Boroughs of Brent and Camden.

All Trojan Energy’s hardware technology is manufactured in the UK at sites including Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Aylesbury.