Ringway is collaborating with the London Borough of Hounslow and supply chain partners in a unique trial of both electric vehicles and cutting-edge electric charging point technology that uses street lighting columns.
The partnership teamed up with Ubitricity, a German company, which pioneers progressive electric charging point systems. The joint solution we developed uses street lighting columns to provide a plug-in system called SimpleSocket.
For the trial, 40 units were installed by Ringway across Chiswick and Isleworth in residential streets. The location of the charging points was determined by the volume of requests from residents.
Once installed, residents received an email giving the locations of all 40 charging points. The locations were also posted on social media and contained within the Ubitricity app. Preliminary findings show that:
- 50% of these points are used on daily basis
- 25% are used every other day
- the remaining 25% are being used on an ad-hoc basis
Rob Gillespie, regional director for Ringway Hounslow Highways said: 'It’s been a tremendously exciting initiative as Hounslow is the first London Borough to be installing these units as an integral part of existing street furniture.
'Other advantages of this solution are that there is no additional housing required for these units, so streets remain uncluttered and since there is sufficient energy from the new LED street lights, there is no need to dig up the pavement to install new utilities.
The system gives 230V of power in single phase 16-25A. The socket itself is easily removable if required and can be translocated in under three minutes.
It is designed for low power, long stay charging – typically overnight for residents, however many residents in Hounslow have cars with the largest batteries on the market (~100W) and are using our SimpleSocket successfully, Ringway said.
The billing technology deployed is also bespoke, as each charging SmartCable contains a meter that monitors the electricity consumed. It itemises each charging transaction and bills the user on a monthly basis, using a SIM card to generate a mobile signal to the cloud. Users can monitor their own usage online or through a bespoke app.
To find out more about the trail read the Aug/Sept edition of Highways magazine
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