Project background

Making a depot electric fleet ready entails upgrading its connection to the electricity grid and installing a large number of vehicle chargers of varying specifications.

These projects require strategic understanding of long-term requirements by both decision makers and project offers. An understanding of the technology and technical language used on specifying depot charging systems will also be necessary.

As this detailed knowledge is not currently available to most local authorities, the Midlands Net Zero Hub commissioned an authoritative guide to remedy this knowledge gap.

The ‘Electrification of Council Depots: A guide to making local authority depots ready for fleet electrification’ is available to download now.

Project aims

The electrification of depots project empowers local authority decision making and equips officers with the knowledge to make their depot projects a success. It:

• Gives the reader logical steps to follow when embarking on a project to install electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in a council depot

• Describes the electrical architecture of a typical depot charging system and provide a step by step guide to putting such a system in place

• Outlines the risks associated with different approaches and contain detailed appendices with draft specifications and templates to aid the procurement of the equipment and services required when installing a depot EV charging system

• Is developed on the assumption that LAs will electrify their fleets to time-scales compatible with their climate change commitments

• Has an emphasis on technical specification, good engineering practice and will identify the factors that need to be taken into consideration when installing an electric fleet charging system

• Offers guidance on the sizing of necessary connection upgrades to the distribution network and identify measures that can be taken to minimise costs associated with such upgrades.

• Identifies key parameters and standards that need to be considered when specifying charging infrastructure (e.g. fault level requirements, communications, and software protocols)

• Describes how to ‘design in’ reliability and resilience in a depot-wide EV charging system

• Examines how electric fleet charging infrastructure can be future proofed to take into account of evolving technologies and standards


Funding competition

Funding is currently available to support local authorities in the Midlands to electrify their depots. Get a grant of up to £25,000 to help cover the cost of developing an investable business case specific to their depots.

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