EV charging points

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Availability of Electric vehicle (EV) Chargers : Heriot Row / East London Street

Adapted from an email sent to all City centre councillors on 23 February. 

As you may have noticed, the EV chargers on Heriot Row and East London Street have been barriered off and are no longer available. We were advised that the chargers have been removed so that stone setts could be added to the concrete plinths on which the chargers had been installed a few months ago.

Apparently this is being driven by heritage concerns.

As far as we are aware there is no plan to change out the very non-heritage chargers themselves. This is simply about making their bases more visually attractive.

While the reason for this work on Heriot Row could be justified on heritage grounds, it would seem to make no sense on East London Street as that side of the road is outside both the World Heritage Site and the New Town Conservation Area.

Also, there is nothing on the Council website to inform users that these have been taken out of service. Given that they are the only Rapid Chargers in this area of the city, this could cause issues for users.

We find it hard to believe that this work is proceeding in the current financial climate and would ask for a response to the following questions:

  • Who approved this work?
  • How much is it costing?
  • When will units be back in service?

On a separate matter, in addition to the concerns raised at the recent NTBCC meeting regarding the lack of clear notification about the overstay penalties (as covered here), ChargePlace Scotland have recently introduced a minimum charge of £1.00 which applies even if no current has been drawn. Users have reported that they have experienced problems connecting to the chargers and have been charged the minimum fee for these failed connections. This is surely not what was intended.

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Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Points Update – Penalties for ‘Over-staying’

In our previous post, we highlighted concerns raised by users of the recently commissioned EV charge points.

Whilst we broadly support the roll-out of these charge points, we are concerned that users may not be fully aware of the restrictions on their use – specifically the penalties for over-staying. After a useful discussion at the recent NTBCC February meeting (which was extremely well-attended by local councillors , thank you to all of them – very much appreciated) – we now have a clearer understanding about the concerns that have been raised with NTBCC relating to penalty charges being incurred for overstaying the stated allowable time at these charge points.

Although the Council’s website is clear about the maximum allowable stay at these locations (dependent on the type of EV charger as stated below), it is less clear on the process for determining this.

Standard 7kW charger

  • £0.25 per kWh
  • maximum stay 12 hours
  • £30 overstay penalty
  • no return within 4 hours

Fast 22kW charger

  • £0.30 per kWh
  • maximum stay 3 hours
  • £30 overstay penalty
  • no return within 4 hours

Rapid 50kW charger

  • £0.35 per kWh
  • maximum stay 30 minutes
  • £30 overstay penalty
  • no return within 4 hours

What we learned was that the duration is determined by the connection time of the vehicle at these EV chargers which is automatically recorded by ChargePlace Scotland. If the maximum duration is exceeded, then a penalty charge is levied immediately on the user’s Charge Place Scotland account. There is no ‘grace period’ and users may not be aware that a penalty charge has been levied until they receive their statement of account from ChargePlace Scotland in the following days / weeks.

So, for clarity, if your vehicle is connected beyond the maximum stay allowable (which is dependent on the EV charger output as above) – then PLEASE NOTE you will incur a penalty charge.

Whilst we would hope that further consideration is given to the maximum allowable durations permitted (which seem relatively short, especially on the Rapid chargers and to a lesser extent, the Fast chargers); currently users of these charge points will have accepted the current restrictions and penalty charges and therefore need to abide by them.