Faraday Institution goes electric

Battery research body asks Compleo to provide chargepoints for its car park

Compleo Charging Solutions UK, a provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging hardware and software solutions, has installed EV chargers for battery research organisation the Faraday Institution.

Compleo has installed fast-charging, 3 Phase 22kW AC units at the Faraday Institution’s designated parking spaces at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus HQ in Oxfordshire.

The chargers will be for use by staff, its pool car and visitors.

The Faraday Institution is the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research, skills development, market analysis and earlystage commercialisation.

Bringing together expertise from universities and industry, the Faraday Institution endeavours to make the UK the go-to place for the research and development of new electrical storage technologies for both the automotive and wider relevant sectors.

Susan Robertson, Faraday Institution’s chief operating officer, said: “The Compleo EV charging software (eOperate) is invaluable to us. It enables our staff, visitors and pool cars to charge reliably using RFID cards while ensuring that speculative visitors to the site can’t plug in and get free electricity.

“A number of staff already own an electric vehicle and many of our employees have a long commute. Without reliable access to chargepoints when using their EV for work would be inconvenient for some. Providing the new charging infrastructure has been popular with staff, and doing so, has removed a barrier for the uptake of EVs for our employees –

EV chargers for Kings College London

Electric vehicle chargers have been installed across multiple sites owned by Kings College London.

EV charging specialist Mer won the contract to modernise the university college’s network of chargers. This included replacing older charging points with smart chargers, extending provision to new locations, networking all the chargers and providing a back-office system for monitoring and reporting.

Alexandra Hepple, sustainability officer at King’s College London said: “We have our own growing EV fleet and increasingly our contractors also use electric vehicles, leading to higher demand for charging. Mer has done a fantastic job of creating a charging network that suits our needs today and also enables us to expand in years to come.” important for us as the UK’s independent institute for battery energy storage research.”

Mer carried out site surveys across the King’s estate to identify utilisation rates of existing chargers. The team pinpointed the optimal locations for additional chargepoints such as the new sports centre at Honour Oak Park in South London. In total Mer installed 15 AC chargepoints across eight sites – a mixture of 7kW and 22kW fast chargers.

Valentin Scheltow, Compleo UK’s chief executive, said: “We’re really proud to have our head office in Oxfordshire and working with other local businesses, especially one as renowned as the Faraday Institution, is a privilege for us at Compleo. Our mission is to help make e-mobility and electric vehicle charging available for everyone when they park at home, work and leisure.”