ESG Metric: GHG Scope 2 emissions
Ease of implementation: Medium
Suitable for: SMEs with (or planning to transition to) electric fleets
Suggested functional lead: Facility manager and finance department
Summary
Installing Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers at your facility not only allows employees and visitors to charge their vehicles, but also allows for on-site charging on the company’s EV fleet, which increases operational efficiency. If EV chargers are not present on site, the vehicles will have to travel elsewhere to charge, wasting time and increasing electric fleet emissions. Therefore, installing EV chargers on site is a helpful way to reduce transport emissions and increase efficiency. Countries such as Sweden, Spain and Poland have incentivised chargepoint installation, decreasing the costs of installation. Ensure permission has been granted from the facility manager to install the chargepoints and that the correct chargepoints for your fleet are being installed.
Background Information
Under the Workplace Charging Scheme, the UK Government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) offers financial support to install charge points for public sector, charities and businesses that meet application and location eligibility. The grant covers 75% of total cost of purchasing and installing the EV chargepoints, but this is capped at £350 per socket with a maximum of 40 sockets across all sites. You can either have an existing EV fleet or plans to purchase an EV fleet for this grant. Similar incentives may exist in other countries to support new charging points. For example, in Spain a charging point are subsidized between 30%-55% with Sweden offering similar incentives covering approximately 50% of purchasing and installation costs. Similarly, Poland will cover up to 25% of construction costs of charge points to support the development of EV recharging infrastructure.
Implementation Steps
Get permission from office or building manager
If you do not own your building, request permission from the facility manager to install charging points in the car park or the surrounding area on site.
Research and gather information on quantity and type of chargepoint required
There are various types of EV chargers based on the fleet type. Ensure you book the appropriate charging points for your company’s fleet. Various options of commercial charging points can be found here.
Assess if you are eligible for a government grant
In the UK, several criteria must be met to apply for a grant. Click here and assess whether you are eligible or not. Follow the next steps accordingly:
Assign responsibility for monitoring the energy consumption and reducing where necessary
Assign a member of staff to track the electricity used by the charging points and make changes in usage where required. Ensure you have up to date electricity meter readings and bills from the day before the installation. Most energy suppliers will have a functionality either online of in an app to track the energy consumed during charging. If on the off chance they do not provide this, you can manually track the energy consumption by tracking the start times and duration of an employee or customer charging on site. You can then cross reference the energy used through your smart meter during that time. It may also be of interest to advice charging vehicles during the night as night tariffs have a cheaper standing charge than the daytime because less energy is being used and demanded.