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The IMechE member leading a project to make Milton Keynes' first electric car charging posts operational has spoken of the technical challenges involved.
Tim Armitage, associate director of the advanced technology and research department at engineering consultancy Arup, said three charging posts had been made operational this month. They are part of a batch of 25 set to come online in the next few weeks. Each post has two sockets, enabling the charging of 50 vehicles.
Armitage, as project leader, has watched the evolution of the charging post system. The project has benefited from the Arup-led Cabled electric car programme, which has provided valuable data on driver habits.
Armitage said: “Cabled has given us insight into where users of electric vehicles would wish to park their cars. It's helped us in terms of the positioning strategy for the charging bays.”
Milton Keynes, which is participating in the Plugged-in Places programme, wants to see 1,000 electric cars on its roads by 2014.
The charging posts have been designed to have a single column, rather than a feeder pillar connecting to an array of posts, to reduce clutter in the street. Ordinarily the feeder pillar would contain the primary fuse and electricity meter, but these have been combined in the charging posts themselves.
Armitage said: “Milton Keynes is particular about the way the cityscape looks, so what we intended to do right from the start was to introduce posts where we could incorporate the primary fuse and the meter inside the post.”
The charging posts are designed to be interoperable with posts in London, Oxford and Cambridge, meaning that hopping between the cities is now possible for Milton Keynes electric car drivers.
Making the posts interoperable necessitated introducing dual-format charging stations that could cope with the different RFID protocols used around the country. Drivers registered under the Milton Keynes scheme are able to charge their cars in London, Cambridge and Oxford, and vice versa.
The Cabled programme continues with the recent introduction of Halo induction power technology (IPT) wireless charging capability on two Citroen C1 electric cars, which also have standard plug-in charging ability.
Armitage said the wireless Halo IPT technology was a “very easy way to charge the car”. He said: “It alleviates any concerns with having to plug it in, such as moving wet cables around in the rain.
“It's still an emerging technology but it has some tremendous advantages. It's very tidy.”
One day the technology could be used to charge buses for short periods – while waiting at stops for example. That could entail smaller battery sizes, reductions in cost and improved efficiency, said Armitage.