Residential EV charging at scale

Intelligent power management and load-balancing EV chargepoints for the built environment.
Climate Change Mitigation

Problem Addressed

  • The lack of reliable and affordable charging solutions
  • System deliveries with larger power capacity requirements
    • requiring more upstream infrastructure (cabling, substations etc)

Solution Overview

Pod Point provide advisory services to town planners, architects, design consultants and contractors to ensure their proposed solutions meet both near and long term requirements, comply with local planning and central building regulations and offer the best outcome for drivers and property managers once adopted. The core product offering is the power load management technology ‘Array’ – a solution balancing the load between chargepoints when individuals are drawing power simultaneously. In doing so it caps the maximum demand required from the grid and in turn therefore reduces the infrastructure required to install EV charging at scale.

Billing is managed via a Wi-Fi connection. All Pod Point charging infrastructure is smart enabled and Wi-Fi connected. A Wi-Fi connection must be provided on site, allowing a tariff for usage of the charging points to be set at the client’s discretion. Pod Point manages the collection of funds through the Pod Point app.

Customers can significantly reduce the cost of EV charging infrastructure installations by reducing or completely removing the need for additional power from the grid. This is imperative in two circumstances:

  • New build properties where increasingly stringent building regulations (the new Part S) mean that developer costs relating to EV charging are increasing dramatically
  • Existing residential properties where money is often tight but issues have been compounded further by cladding costs

Power upgrade costs are typically between 20% and 70% of a project’s costs; clearly a wide range and consequently a key unknown and risk for those wishing to proceed.

The solution is now present in over 500 locations around the UK, providing clients and drivers with a reliable, sustainable and affordable means to proceed on their EV journey. The environmental impact of this infrastructure is recurring as it continues to provide kWh to cars into the future. As each kWh produced in the UK is becoming greener as each year passes, the environmental benefit of our systems continues to move in tandem.

Company name

Pod Point

UK availability

Yes

Solution launch date

2018

Links

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Solutions submitted by

Ocean Charge

Case Study

Residential development in Bow: Pod Point installed a Load Balancing Solution for an underground carpark.

Devon’s Road is a mixed use development comprising apartment blocks and individual plots, with a large underground car park in Bow, East London. In such developments a London-wide planning condition requires the installation of electric vehicle chargepoints in 20% of the development’s parking bays at build stage (“active” provision) and the provision of infrastructure for future installation of chargepoints in an additional 20% of the development’s parking bays (“passive” provision). In order to satisfy the condition there must be enough available power for both the active and passive provision. For Devon’s Road, the requirement equated to 23no active chargepoints, with passive provision for a further 23no chargepoints.

Challenges

  • insufficient substation capacity to account for all 46no 7kW chargepoints and upgrading to allow for a further 150kVA was not feasible, logistically or financially
  • Available supply to the underground car park was insufficient for the planned 23no chargepoints in that location
  • Site underground location and the potential lack of a 3G or 4G signal

Solution

As well as providing chargepoints, systems and installation services for the Devon’s Road project, Pod Point also acted as consultant to the client; designing a bespoke solution and a phased implementation plan.

Result

23no wall mounted 7kW solo units were installed in the underground car park, utilising cable trays fit specifically for EV charging to run power and data cabling neatly at high-level, over a 50m stretch, and then down to each individual unit position. The cabling from the tray to each unit ran behind the wall, giving a visually appealing “Floating Pod” appearance at each chargepoint enabled parking bay.

Thanks to the Pod Point Load Balancing System, all 23no chargepoints in the underground car park have the infrastructure to be used simultaneously from just a 100A three phase supply, saving the client significant budget and protecting the site’s electrical infrastructure. The 7kW units have the capacity to deliver up to 30 miles of range per hour of charge, which the resident will pay for via their Pod Point smart phone app. The client manages this by allowing only residents of the development access to the chargepoints, and setting a tariff to cover the cost of electricity used. Pod Point handles the full billing process, rebating the client and leaving them without an ongoing administrative burden

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Ocean Charge

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