19th May 2020 | Posted by: Daniel Birkett | Industry News

Western Power is preparing for a sixteen-fold rise in electric vehicles on its network over the next three years.

The Distribution Network Operator (DNO), Western Power Distribution (WPD) is preparing for a 16-fold rise in electric vehicles on its network by 2023.

The operator states that flexibility and managed charging will be vital to ensure its infrastructure can cope with the expected growth of electric vehicles in the UK.

In WPD’s updated strategy, the firm said: “With EV adoption increasing at the current rate, it is expected some 217,000 chargers will be connected to the network by 2023”

According to a report released by Western Power, 13,760 EV chargers were installed on the network as of March 2020. The report went on to suggest that this figure will grow by 1,500% over the next three years due to changes in car manufacturing and more favourable tax rates for electric cars.

WPD’s transformers can only allocate 35KWh for each EV customer every five days which should be enough for most users if charging is managed efficiently.

To help deal with the additional load the operator proposes measures such as timed connections, smart charging and vehicle-to-grid schemes. Its Flexible Power Platform has also been adjusted to allow for scalability, in addition to necessary network upgrades.

WPD said: “As vehicle to grid solutions and smart charging develop, WPD will have the opportunity to make use of these flexible solutions on the network. In fact, a customer who makes use of local generation, storage and EV charging could actually reduce their impact on the network and help avoid conventional reinforcement.”

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