Fleets no longer liable for substation upgrades, hears Fleet News at 10

New regulations which remove the cost burden on businesses for local substation upgrades when installing workplace charging infrastructure were top of the agenda at the September Fleet News at 10 webinar broadcast.

Called Access and Forward-Looking Charges Significant Code Review (Access SCR for short), the Ofgem recommendations are awaiting final confirmation towards the end of this year with a planned implementation date of April 2023.

It will mean that new demand customers will no longer need to pay for a local substation upgrade. Instead, the cost will be spread across the distribution industry.

However, fleets shouldn’t now relax and wait for April 2023, according to Lorna McAtear, head of fleet, National Grid.

“You still have to pay for the physical work, so don’t sit there and wait thinking everything will be easy now – you still need to speak to your DNOs as quickly as possible,” she said. “You still have to put the cables into the ground, and it can still be quite a task.”

Nevertheless, fleets agreed that the new regulations would help to speed up the introduction of electric vehicles.

Lee Jackson, head of fleet and transport at Marston Holdings, said: “This gives us an opportunity to ramp up our transition to electric vehicles – it’s a positive move forward.”

Access SCR was one of six topics discussed by panellists McAtear, Jackson, Chris Connors, Countryside Properties head of facilities and fleet, Paul Hollick, chair at Association of Fleet Professionals, and Emily Buckley, strategic fleet manager, Defra Group Fleet Services.

The other topics were:

• Impact of energy cost rises on electric vehicles
• EV infrastructure concerns and Government investment
• Hydrogen as an alternative fuel source for HGVs
• Rising insurance premiums
• Outcomes from the mini Budget

On the issue of energy cost impacts on EVs, Emily Buckley said: “The true cost of charging has been rising steadily, especially through summer, which impacts on TCO models. But the falling pound has pushed up diesel prices, so the TCO calculations are constantly evolving.

She added: “It would be good to see a downward movement on the core cost of electric vehicles to help balance out those TCO calculations. But as long as you have access to home or work charging, they still stack up.”

For more on these discussions, watch the September Fleet News at 10 webinar recording.

Electric Vehicles and infrastructrue will be a key focus at Fleet & Mobility Live, with the EV Theatre covering a range of topics of importance to fleet decision-makers. Registration is still open for the event, which runs from October 11-12 at Birmingam NEC.

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