8 minute read
A Quality First Approach to EV Charging
As sales of electric vehicles (EVs) continue to rise, and the government brings forward its ban of petrol and diesel cars to 2030, more and more companies are switching onto the benefits of EV charging points, whether to encourage footfall, drive sustainability or improve engagement with employees. But to create a world-class charging infrastructure, duty holders must ensure they take a ‘quality first’ approach to installing and maintaining these fast charging points.
Michael Kenyon MIET, Technical Lead at Bureau Veritas, explores the importance of electrical safety and why regular inspection and maintenance is critical for any EV charging installation.
The adoption of electric vehicle (EV) technology continues to move at a rapid pace. Earlier this month, the UK government unveiled its ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, which included bringing forward the ban of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035 to 2030. There are now around 339,000 registered EVs in the UK, with pure electric models the only category of growth currently in the UK1.
With such a dramatic rise in vehicle sales, it was evident that the UK’s charging infrastructure would need to increase to cope with demand. In many ways, the private sector has led the way, supported by generous incentive schemes.
Businesses across a wide range of sectors are now
installing EV charging points. The benefits include income generation, increased footfall, and improved sustainability across fleets and even better staff engagement. And with incentives of up to £14,000 per organisation available through the Government’s Workplace Charging Scheme, many would argue that for any organisation with the space and resources to install EV charging points, there is no better time to invest.
Recent statistics from ZapMap show there are now 33,779 charging points for electric vehicles in the UK, up 39% in the last 12 months alone2. The Government has pledged to invest a further £500m in the rollout of new rapid electric charging hubs to ensure drivers are never more than 30 miles from being able to charge their car3. A quality first approach
As with any rapid deployment of relatively young technology, the onus now is on the quality and safety of such installations.
Like any fixed electrical installation, duty holders are required under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 (EAWR) to ensure the safety of EV charging points. This includes maintaining systems to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any danger to employees, visitors or other persons.
In addition to EAWR, there are a number of other documents used for guidance and to demonstrate compliance, including BS7671 Requirements for Electrical installations, Guidance Notes including GN3 (IET) and BS7671 Section 722 – Electric Vehicle charging installations.
Notably, duty holders should take into consideration that EV charging points are a high use asset, often installed outside and therefore vulnerable to mechanical damage and ingress of water. Periodic inspection and at least annual testing are critical to help maintain the long-term integrity of charging points. Support from electrical experts
Of course, this expertise is not always available inhouse, which is why Bureau Veritas has launched a new independent inspection offering for EV charging points to help duty holders ensure all installations are compliant with relevant regulations.
This new service provides an independent assessment of all new installations to identify any issues that may present an electrical safety risk.
Conducted by Bureau Veritas’ highly-skilled electrical engineers, the testing and inspection programme includes a thorough internal and external visual inspection, together with earth continuity and, polarity confirmation, and functional testing. Checks on residual current devices and earth loop impedance are also included - all designed to help maintain the safety and long-term integrity of these vital assets.
It offers a trusted service from a global leader in testing, inspection and certification, helping organisations to identify faults earlier and maintain compliance with workplace and electrical safety legislation. Not forgetting access to a full range of fixed electrical testing and inspection services from Bureau Veritas experts. Future of EV charging
At a time when more and more organisations are installing EV charging points to tap into the benefits and keep up with the UK’s shift to electric, a quality first approach is the key to unlocking the potential and maintaining the long-term integrity and availability of our charging infrastructure.
The technology and the incentives are now firmly in place to continue the roll-out of EV charging points across the private sector, in line with EV sales. We must make sure the quality and safety of installations are keeping pace. CASE STUDY: A Supercharged Approach
Bureau Veritas’ new independent inspection offering for EV charging points was recently used by one of the world’s largest multinational technology firms to help them ensure all installations are compliant with relevant regulations.
As part of an initial trial, the health and safety firm’s experienced electrical inspection engineer examined and tested one EV charging point at the client’s Northampton warehouse and distribution centre. After the success of this, the firm is now revaluating their approach to electrical safety of EV charging points to help identify any issues and provide peace of mind. To find out more, click here: https://share.hsforms. com/1EHe_6g8nSfakNrUG3XwwA2z02a
To find out more about Bureau Veritas’ new independent inspection offering for EV charging points or to discuss individual requirements with a member of the team, call 0345 600 1828 or visit: https:// www.bureauveritas.co.uk/ electric-vehicle-chargingpoints-testing-inspection
On The Cover
Managing the buildings at the University of Richmond
With a campus set in 350 acres (1.4km2), the University of Richmond is a liberal arts college that surrounds the Westhampton Lake just west of downtown Richmond. It earned the Princeton Review’s Top spot for ‘Most Beautiful Campus’ in 2020 because of its collegiate gothic architecture and stunning landscape of pines and rolling hills. The campus is a regularly used location for TV and film shoots.
Being ‘home’ to over 3,900 students and 1,700 faculty and staff throughout more than 70 buildings, the stakes are high to ensure that each of the buildings are as comfortable and as energy efficient as possible. Julian Morgan, Associate Director, Energy Management, has been instrumental at updating the campus legacy Building Automation Systems (BAS). Starting in 2014, Morgan needed to update 41 buildings and 1,300 pieces of equipment by integrating the legacy Staefa Control System to Niagara JACEs to unify the front-end workstation with a better user interface. Building Management
When evaluating options for the integration, Morgan quickly settled on J2 Innovations’ FIN Stack – an out-of-the-box version of our open market software for simplified building management. It was chosen for the centralized graphics, data collection, alarms, and uniform user interface across all platforms, desktop, smartphone, and tablet.
“When I first evaluated J2 Innovations’ products for the conversion to Niagara I was only interested in the graphics. When I was shown the software, the history app was what sold me. To have that amount of data at your fingertips is invaluable – I could see so many possibilities for the campus with FIN Stack.” - Julian Morgan, Associate Director, Energy Management
The implementation helped unify the campus and gave more options for facility management and reports than ever before. It provided the campus with a simplified graphical user interface, unified alarm management, integration, a campus wide cross vendor control structure through bLine. a mobile platform for technicians to view the campus BAS when needed for problem solving or just monitoring campus HVAC equipment and the ability to view, graph,
format, and download all point data in the history collection via the Historian App.
This was just the beginning of the story for the building management system at the University – since the initial integration in 2014, over 55 of the campus’ 70 buildings are now connected with FIN Stack, with more being added. Today, FIN connects to 2460 pieces of equipment and over 63,600 data points. Troubleshooting
As well as leading the integration, another large part of Morgan’s role is troubleshooting, a job that he finds easy due to the superior data collection, reports and analysis of current and historical data:
“At the moment, we are in ‘shoulder-season’ when we have to constantly question - are we cooling or are we heating? Having data trends at my fingertips really helps get through this as I can look at each building as an individual to get the correct temperature, save energy and keep the occupants happy”
Viewing historical data this way is also helping the university plan for the future. With new buildings being commissioned on campus, troubleshooting data provided on existing building stock has helped the team look at optimizing the new buildings at commissioning stage. Naturally, the new buildings will be able to enjoy the benefits too. Energy dashboard
In 2018, Morgan replaced the existing ‘Energy Dashboard’ and brought it over to FIN Stack. This has played a key part in improving efficiency throughout campus as building data can now be exported and connected to off-site. This helps with out-of-hours troubleshooting as estate staff can access key building data at any time. Even students have taken an interest in the abilities of the dashboard, with a recent request from an Environmental Studies student who wanted the data to support their internship. The Future
While the University has upgraded the FIN software to the latest release (FIN5), they are excited about the future and the ever-growing capabilities of the software, including implementing Edge2Cloud functionality.
FIN has supported them with campus preparations in the current Covid-19 pandemic. With over 1,000 VAV systems throughout the campus, FIN has made it easy for them to meet ASRHAE recommendations for COVID-19. The team have rolled out necessary changes to VAV and AHU systems in 2 weeks – this has been significant at making sure staff and students feel safe and secure when they return to campus.
“FIN Stack is not just a BAS integration system; it is facility management tool that I can customize the user interface to make my job of managing the campus easier. Set-points, sequences, and schedules – these are the bread and butter of optimizing energy efficiency for facilities managers. It saves us a lot of time so we can focus on making our campus a great place to work and study.”
