Amid growing industry concern around touch-potentials risk, the ILP is carrying out research into cross-pavement domestic electric vehicle charging solutions
By Rob Baines
When we’re talking about electric vehicle (EV) charging and electrical safety, for me the issue is not really standalone EV chargers, whether in-column, on-street or chargers in public spaces, forecourts and the like.
By and large, as lighting and electrical professionals we can control where they go and how they are connected.
No, the issue – and growing concern – is more around cross-pavement domestic charging by the general public, especially given the accelerated expansion of solutions we are currently seeing, including reforms by the government to make such accessing of these solutions easier and cheaper.
I, for one, have been contacted by numerous colleagues in councils asking for advice. And, more generally, the rapid roll out of this new public infrastructure should, I’d argue, give us all pause for thought.
CANNOT JUST BE SAYING ‘NO’
Take the 2.5m-separation rule, for example. This can be a challenge when you have a house, say, on a corner with a column on the gable end and a column next to the front garden, and the resident is wanting to put a cable channel in. There is no way they can park a vehicle that will be 2.5m away from a column.
We all know we cannot ignore the recommendations of the Wiring Regulations. Yet, at the same time, if we don’t allow people to put these cable channels in – if we just say no – they will simply do it anyway, perhaps using an unreputable contractor. They’ll just run a cable somehow anyway.
If the ‘perfect storm’ happened, if there was a fault on the incoming neutral and the vehicle became live, we need to know what sort of voltages are we talking about, what sort of current, what would the touch potential be?
Equally, what scenarios exist where an OPDD would not operate and you’ve still got a touch-potential risk?
LOOKING FOR ANSWERS
To try to answer some of these questions, the ILP is working with renewable energy firm Cenex to kickstart research in this area. We’re also looking to partner up perhaps with a university, as any testing will need to be carried out in a completely controlled environment.
Or it might be there is a DNO that has a suitable testing space. We want to explore what the different scenarios are and what might be the worst case.
My message then to ILP member is a simple one: get involved. I’d like members to tell me what questions are niggling at them and what they’d like to get answered. What, for you, are the key areas of ambiguity here that need to be addressed? And, indeed, to think about whether you have institutions or bodies in your professional network that may be able to help.
It is all very early days as yet. We’re hoping (but it is no more than that) that we may be able to update members at the Lighting Live Annual Conference in Birmingham in June. But we do have a working group underway, and so hopefully things will now progress. We’re also hoping, eventually, to publish a report, even some guidance.
It might be that we conclude cross-pavement solutions are downright dangerous and we shouldn’t be touching them with a barge pole. Or it may be we conclude they’re fine, or land in some sort of middle ground. The issue is that, at the moment we just don’t know which, as I say, given the speed at which these solutions are being rolled out in communities, is a worry.
Ultimately, this is something we want – and need – to get a handle on, something we need to get traction on and answers to. So, yes, watch this space for updates but, also, please do come forward and get involved as this is something all of us within the lighting community need to be tackling.
Rob Baines is the ILP’s local authority lead as well as electrical assets commissioner, Highways and Place, at Derbyshire County Council
GET IN TOUCH
- If you’d like to find out more, have a view, or want to get involved you can drop Rob a line at Rob.Baines@derbyshire.gov.uk
This is an abridged version of the article that appears in the March edition of Lighting Journal. To read the full article, simply click on the page-turner to your right.
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