National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) is adding more than 180 new electric vehicle charging bays to its estate, investing £13 million to widen access for its rapidly electrifying fleet.
The programme will see 182 extra bays installed at 83 primary substations and eight offices, taking NGED’s privately owned network to 444 bays – which will make it one of the largest of its kind in the UK. Sites have been selected after analysing the urban and rural routes most often travelled by front-line staff, ensuring engineers are never more than 10 miles from an NGED charger.
NGED already runs more than 1,000 electric vehicles, including 400 commercial vans and 600 cars, and is introducing models such as the Skoda Enyaq AWD van and Ford Explorer as it pushes towards a fully decarbonised fleet.
Ian Smith, NGED’s Head of Operations Support, commented, “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.
“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.”
Rock Power Connections is delivering the installations, which include both HV and LV works to support high-power DC chargers.
Chris Rigby of Rock Power Connections, added, “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.”
Each new charger will appear on NGED’s internal app as soon as it is commissioned, allowing drivers to locate, navigate to and activate the company-operated units in real time.
