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Summary of Responses to the EV Smart Charging consultation, and BSI PAS standards for energy smart appliances (specifically PAS 1878). 

In the recently published Summary of Responses to the EV Smart Charging consultation, the Department for Transport confirmed their intention to mandate that all new private chargepoints are smart, subject to further policy development and the continued development of device-level standards. To deliver consistent minimum standards and meet government objectives for smart charging, as outlined in chapter 2 of the consultation, the smart chargepoint regulations will ordinarily require compliance with elements of the BSI PAS standards for energy smart appliances (specifically PAS 1878). 

The ESA PAS (1878) is now available for public review and can be found here, where the British Standards Institute (BSI) will be gathering technical comments. For further details, you can contact BSI directly on SmartAppliances@bsigroup.com or visit the BSI Standards Development Portal. 

Electric Vehicle Smart Charging Consultation​

The ‘Electric vehicle smart charging consultation’ opened on 15 July 2019 and closed on 7 October 2019. Government consulted businesses and individuals on implementing smart charging requirements under the ‘Automated and electric vehicles act 2018’, with particular consideration of important issues like cyber security and interoperability.

The aim of the public consultation was to outline the government’s approach and objectives for smart charging of EVs (chapter 1); seek views on the first phase of regulations (“phase 1”) (chapter 2); gather evidence on a second phase for a long-term solution (“phase 2”), which we believe will be required by 2025 (chapter 3); and gather evidence on how best to use the AEV act power on the transmission of chargepoint data (chapter 4).

To deliver consistent minimum standards, DfT proposed that the regulations will ordinarily require compliance with elements of the British Standards Institution (BSI) standards for energy smart appliances (ESAs) (publicly available specification (PAS)1878). This standard will be technically compatible with both the GB smart metering system and existing international standards. This standard is currently under development, through an industry-led process. It is proposed that compliance with the standards would be mandatory, except where organisations can prove that their chargepoints comply with suitable equivalent standards that meet the same outcomes.

It is the Government's intention to mandate that all new private chargepoints are smart, subject to further policy development and the continued development of device-level standards. 

Government intends to engage further with stakeholders in the context of developing the phase one smart chargepoint regulations this year. This will aid further policy development on a number of areas where there was a lack of consensus amongst respondents. Once the BSI PAS 1878 is finalised and published (due in early 2021), it is our intention to take forward regulations for compliance with elements of PAS 1878 through secondary legislation under section 15 of the AEV act.

Energy Data

There will be further policy development on the questions within this call for evidence in chapter 4 of the consultation related to the transmission of chargepoint data, before reaching a decision on regulation under section 14 of the AEV act. As part of this ongoing policy development process, there will be continued engagement with stakeholders and consideration of the relevant proposals from the Energy Data Taskforce and Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce reports. Government has also announced it is looking at how to make static and dynamic data from all public chargepoints openly available in a standard format for the first time, as well as considering what further electric vehicle charging data is needed to support network infrastructure planning.

techUK is part of the Strategic Advisory Group for BSI PAS 1878 and will continue to engage our membership in response to the proposed standards. 

To join the discussion, register for our member roundtable in response to the consultation on 11 August, Tuesday, from 10:00 until 12:00.