Only a third of electrical vehicle (EV) charging points worked 12 months after being installed across Liverpool.
Almost 70 EV column chargers were sited at various locations across the city during 2018-19 through a contract Liverpool Council entered into with supplier Ubitricity. In the year following the original commissioning process, it was identified only 30% of the points were suitable for use, owing to what the local authority describes as “specialist nature of the equipment” making maintenance difficult.
A cabinet report has been prepared for a new contract to be entered into with Ubitricity for a period of seven years and the installation of additional column chargers. The document said that in order for Liverpool Council to meet its net zero carbon target of 2030, “it is necessary to increase the number of EV charging points within the city.
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“Requests are regularly received from residents and councillors for additional column chargers in areas where there is no off-street parking.” The new contract will be supported by the Government’s On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) at no cost to Liverpool Council.
Users expressed their frustration at the number of unavailable charging points, the report said, with around half now in working order after supplier Ubitricity “managed to repair some of them”. In order to fix the remaining points, additional investment is required.
The new chargers would be funded by a 60% grant from ORCS and the remaining 40% of the cost would be funded by Ubitricity. The report said it was “likely” that around 300 new charging points would be installed during this financial year at a cost of almost half a million pounds.
Proposed locations have been identified through resident requests received by the council for on-street EV column charging points. These residents park on-street and do not have off-street parking and therefore do not have the opportunity to install a private charging point.
The cabinet briefing said that a lesson learned from the initial scheme four years ago identified that more than one EV charging point needs to be installed in each street to allow more residents to charge their vehicle. Therefore where possible, it is proposed to install at least two charge points within 100 metres of the postcode of the resident request to anticipate future demand and further encourage residents with cars to make the switch to electric.
It was said the new contract will ensure that maintenance sits with Ubitricity. “Target availability for all chargers will be 99% and this will be monitored by highways in conjunction with procurement team,” it added.
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