The rapid, and accelerating, roll out of EV charge points has meant the technical standards have had to play catch-up. But they have been evolving.
By Mark Cooper
The UK government has set an ambitious target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Below are some key elements of the plan:
- Decarbonising all sectors. The strategy outlines policies to reduce emissions across various sectors, including energy, transport, agriculture, and industry.
- Green industrial revolution. The government has laid out a 10-point plan focusing on advancing offshore wind, hydrogen production, nuclear power, and electric vehicles.
- Carbon budgets. Interim targets, such as a 68% reduction in emissions by 2030 and a 78% reduction by 2037, help track progress.
- Supporting innovation. Investment in research and development to foster new technologies and solutions for reducing emissions.
LOCAL ELECTRIC VEHICLE INFRASTRUCTURE (LEVI) FUND
The LEVI fund is a crucial part of the strategy to meet the net zero target, particularly in the transport sector. Its aims are:
- Infrastructure development. The LEVI fund supports local authorities in England to plan and deliver electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, especially for residents without off-street parking.
- Capital and capability funding. It provides both capital funding for the installation of charge points and capability funding to ensure local authorities have the necessary resources and expertise to deliver these projects.
- Commercialisation and investment. By accelerating the deployment of local charging infrastructure, the fund aims to boost the commercial viability of the EV charging sector.
- Accessibility. The focus is on making EV charging accessible to more people, thereby encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles and reducing emissions from traditional petrol and diesel cars.
One of the main objectives of the LEVI fund is to deliver a step-change in the deployment of local, primarily low power, on-street charging infrastructure across England. The UK classifies EV charger speeds based on power output.
HOW DO LAMP COLUMN CHARGERS WORK?
Typically, electric vehicle users will access a variety of different charge points in their day-to-day driving; the types of chargers used differ depending on the situation the driver finds themselves in.
For example, whilst travelling long distances, fast and rapid charging points may be favoured to top up, until you can reach your home or destination, where charging cost are likely to be cheaper.
However, some eight million UK households, or just under a quarter (24%) of households in England do not have access to off-street or private parking.
With charge point accessibility being one of the largest barriers to EV adoption, lamppost charge points provide a low-power, low-cost and near-home charging option.
By utilising the existing distribution network operator (DNO) connection in the streetlight, the 5kW charger can be deployed quickly and easily without the added cost and time delays of waiting for a new DNO connection.
These lamppost charge points are integrated into existing infrastructure, which keep footpaths clear and provide, as I say, a low-cost near-home charging option. These chargers are well-suited to areas with long dwell times or overnight charging.
Indeed, across the ubitricity network, of more than 10,000 column chargers, we see an average plug in time of 10 hours and an average charge time of 6.3 hours.
These charge points are connected directly to the unmetered supply point, the chargers are basically smart IOT (Internet of Things) devices, and we collect data and information from them on a constant basis (every 30 seconds). This data includes their status (standby, charging, offline, unavailable and so on) and is published to the internet, every time one of these statuses’ changes.
This information is used by apps such as Google maps, Zapmap and so on to display available charge points.
Additionally, we at ubitricity need to collect the energy consumption from these units and the kWh dispensed along with time and date. This is so correct billing can take place, along with the fact we also need to pay our energy supplier for the correct amount of energy used.
This data is collected by our mCMS, an approved system by ELEXON very similar in practice to the CMS system used by anyone who has intelligent streetlights.
Additionally, all charge points connected to an unmetered supply, like all pieces of electrical equipment, must have an UMSUG charge code, as David Barker has discussed.
WHERE DON’T WE INSTALL?
Contrary to the widely held view that we can’t install charge points on columns located at the back of the footpath, there are very few locations where a street light charger cannot be installed.
These are generally down to other issues, such as existing or planned waiting restrictions (yellow lines), proximity to junctions, or just that people would never park a car there!
The issues around ‘back of path’ and sizes of column have all generally been resolved with the use of satellite bollards, fed from the column, the use of on-column and in-column chargers, extended doors and even the use of cross-pavement channels on narrow footpaths, where the addition of new street furniture would reduce the restricted footpath even further.
In fact, the only barriers to this type of mass EV charger deployment, usually comes down to the column material (we can’t deploy on concrete columns) or some heritage style and ‘non-standard’ designed columns.
ADVICE FOR COLUMN CHARGING
For ILP members planning on a column replacement scheme and looking to assist the deployment of EV chargers by specifying some different columns, I would like to offer the following pointers to help column-charging companies.
First, do not use double-door columns; these do provide additional space but, because of the internal layout of components, often do not help to resolve space issues.
Additionally, often the idea is that the top compartment can house all the charger equipment and charging socket, whilst the lower compartment contains all of the existing lighting components and DNO supply point.
All public charge points must also comply with accessibility requirements such as PAS 1899, which gives limits on height of socket outlets/where signage and instructions are placed and so.
This will very often rule out the placement of sockets in the upper compartment. My plea therefore to engineers looking to specify lighting columns to assist with the roll out of EV chargers is to specify a standard column with a bigger base compartment diameter, so a 5m or 6m column with a 168nm or 189nm base compartment. This provides the larger volume of space required but ensures compliance with accessibility requirements.
WHAT STANDARDS SHOULD WE BE APPLYING?
We should of course all be aware of BS7671 – Requirements for Electrical Installations and its many amendments and additions. Alongside this, IET’s Code of Practice for Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment Installation, 5th Edition, the previously mentioned PAS 1899:2022 Electric vehicles – Accessible EV charging points, regulations and standards on EMC emissions, safety regulations.
There are many others too, including:
- PAS 191:2023 Multifunctional columns.
- BS EN IEC 61851-1 Electric vehicle conductive charging system – General requirements.
- BS EN IEC 61851-21-2 Electric vehicle conductive charging system – Electric vehicle requirements for conductive connection to an AC/DC supply. EMC requirements for offboard electric vehicle charging systems.
- PD IEC SRD 63460:2025 Architecture and use-cases for EVs to provide grid support functions.
- BS EN ISO 15118-10:2025 Road vehicles. Vehicle to grid communication interface.
- BS EN IEC 61851-1:2019 Electric vehicle conductive charging system – General requirements.
- ENA G12.
- DNO G81 Technical Standards.
Bear in mind, this list is just a selection and by no way comprehensive or exhaustive. But it does show the many diverse topics and specialist fields of knowledge required to have a working technical understanding of this sector. These standards are changing and evolving to meet the rapidly improving technology and application of this technology.
As previously noted by Perry Hazell and Rob Baines, there are concerns around how can the lighting engineer keep pace with this rapid roll out? More to the point, how do EV project managers, who are not electrically qualified, keep pace?
DISCUSSION AROUND O-PEN DEVICES
As an example, let’s look at one of the most recent innovations capturing the headlines: o-PEN devices. Or to give them their correct name, ‘open combined protective and neutral (PEN) conductor detection devices’ (OPDD).
Lamppost charge point installation has historically required ground works to install earth mats, thereby converting the TN-C-S (PME) incoming supply to a TT supply.
This not only creates disruption to the local community but also massively increases costs of public EV infrastructure projects. Traditional protection devices such as miniature circuit breakers (MCBs) and residual current devices (RCDs) do not detect faults in the incoming TN-C-S (PME) systems, hence the need for conversion to a TT system.
Additionally, this work to install a separate earth system (mat or rod) in the public highway can provide its own challenges around installation and ongoing operations.
OPDDs detect the symptoms of faults that can occur on the distribution network cables external to the consumer’s electrical installation. In other words, those cables owned and operated by electricity distribution companies, and which are beyond the control of the installation owner or the operator of the charging equipment.
Current regulations (BS7671) will allow for the use of an OPDD that ensures EV charging equipment ceases charging and completely isolates the vehicle from the charging equipment when a PEN fault occurs on the supply cable out in the street.
If the incoming DNO supply point is TN-C-S (PME) and a separate earth is not being provided for the EV charge point, we do not convert the installation to TT.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) recently published a new standardised approach for how discrete protective devices and those integrated into electrical vehicle charging equipment should behave when an open protective earth and neutral fault occurs in the distribution network.
This document, IET 01 Open combined protective and neutral (PEN) conductor detection devices (OPDDS), aims to provide manufacturers, specifiers and designers with the protection mechanisms for EV charging equipment in case PEN faults occur.
It is designed to equip installers with the knowledge needed to choose the right charge point for the right application. However, to emphasise, it is not intended to replace BS7671, which of course is an installation standard. It is very much to complement it.
However, this issue of PEN faults has shown up with other product standards such as BS EN IEC 61851-1:2019 which under Clause 8.1.4: states: ‘The protective earth conductor shall be permanently connected and shall not be interrupted during normal operation.’
This means that any charger with CE markings and has been built to the above standard (all of them have) cannot have an internal PEN device. There is a pending UK-only deviation for this standard, however, which would allow internal PE disconnection. But only if:
- Automatic reconnection is prohibited.
- Manual reset is required.
- The product is fully BSI Kitemark certified via type testing.
- The unit has a functional test button.
This means that all EV chargers with an internal PEN device, with no manual reset or test function are non-compliant with IET.01, BS 7671, BS EN IEC 61851 and CE and UKCA markings.
They can of course still be used if the incoming supply is converted to TT through the installation of an external earth mat and any internal PEN devices are removed or switched off.
This non-compliance is further increased when applied to streetlighting column chargers that are attached to a metallic column. Internal PEN devices will disconnect the charger only. The streetlighting column is still connected via its supplementary earth bonding to the incoming supply and therefore under a PEN fault, will become live.
This could present a particularly dangerous situation when the EV driver goes to remove their cable from the charge socket, as their natural action is to place your hand on the column, when removing their charge cable from the socket.
So, how do we protect against PEN faults, remove the need for earth mats, remove the need for excavation, reduce costs, speed up deployment and provide a more reliable safer protection system for the whole installation that meets all the technical standards?
In short, use an externally mounted OPDD that meets all of the requirements of IET.01 and BS EN IEC 61851-1:2019.
This device must also be inside an enclosure and combined with protective devices for the lantern, and charger, along with the required surge protection. It should be mounted in the column base, remote / discrete to the charger and protect the complete installation, including the column from all PEN faults.
PROBLEM OF TOUCH POTENTIAL
These devices all have test buttons and also will reclose automatically when the PEN fault is removed, thereby re-energising the circuits safely and without any intervention.
This device, I’d argue, can also solve the problem of ‘touch potentials’ that Perry and Rob highlighted in the earlier article in the context of cross-pavement solutions.
If, on the road, any items of illuminated and/or electrical street furniture on either side of the cross-pavement installation are filled with an OPDD, then should a PEN fault occur, all devices would disconnect, ensuring safety and removing touch potentials.
This means the technical standards can be applied correctly. But this confusion has created further issues with DNOs where some early adopters of PEN protection technology, such as NGED and UKPN are now amending their own technical standards to reflect the issues raised above and ensure that all OPDDs are compliant with IET.01.
Those DNOs that have not yet allowed the use of PEN devices are awaiting the amendment to the ENA (Energy Networks Association) document G12, draft annex 1 document EREC G12 will mandate IET.01 for on-street vehicle chargers.
These are just some of the issues where technical standards have evolved in the last two years. These changes have been made to help enable chargers to be deployed across the UK at scale. They also mean means those who have an EV can charge on-street, and those thinking of changing to an EV can see the chargers being deployed and feel confident in making that swap.
Mark Cooper IEng MILP is a Past President of the ILP as well as senior partnership manager at ubitricity
This is an abridged version of the article that appears in the September edition of Lighting Journal. To read the full article, simply click on the page-turner to your right.
