Actemium’s skills in the complex electric vehicle charging industry places it at the forefront of exciting change. Ross Jones, Sector Manager for Actemium Coventry explains how, and why the power point is just the beginning of the process.

At the most recent count, there were 33,996 electric vehicle charging points across the UK in 20,534 charging locations in 2022, an increase of 34% in the number of charging devices in the space of a year. A mere six years ago, those numbers were firmly in the four figures. It is estimated, with this sustained growth, revenues from EV charging of vehicles alone will surge to about £7 billion in the UK and £43 billion across Europe by 2030.

This is Actemium EV’s world, and here at our Coventry subdivision we have the best in the business to excel in this thriving, in-demand and exciting environment to be truly at the centre of the deployment of the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure.

Since 2019, electric vehicle charging has become our sole focus within this business unit with our service reaching far and wide. For example, we’ve recently completed a significant number of sites for a major courier company working in partnership with VINCI facilities, with whom we have installed over 600 socket outlets, and we’ve also worked with a leading EV car brand across multiple locations around the UK.

Burst into action

As the infrastructure increases, so too do the challenges arise, and our skills in responding to them improve. We are commercial and industrial contractors and with the high-power demand in EV charging, and not everyone being blessed to have that power available, this is where Actemium EV comes in.

Once power availability has been established at a particular site, we determine what is achievable. If there isn’t enough power, we will consider one of two options. The first is to increase the power to the site. Sometimes where the electrical infrastructure exists, the supply capacity can be increased by adjusting the supply contract. This adjustment will not attract any one-off constructional costs and if the electrical connection to the site is insufficient, then the local DNO (distribution network operator) will provide a quote to upgrade the supply. Dependent on the work involved, the cost can be prohibitive.

We then develop load management. The charging stations can be dynamically controlled to prevent overloading of the electrical connection, allowing the system to share the power dependent on the number of vehicles connected to the system. At times of low utilisation, vehicles will charge faster and slower when many are plugged in.

When designing the solution, we ensure that the minimum level of performance of the system is in line with the requirements of the users. This could provoke an upgrade on the high voltage side, with an 11,000 volts transformer, creating a new sub-station, with a new switchboard, right out to that final point of connecting and commissioning the charger.

As you can likely tell, as the roll-out plans continue to bust through the door, the complexity and the planning and construction elements have increased – we’re not simply talking installing a sole cable into the ground!

The job doesn’t end after installation

At Actemium EV, we focus on four and eight-hour charging windows and, in almost every scenario we assess, charging at 7kW for four hours will provide 10x the average daily commute. Charging at lower power for longer allows more individual sockets to be installed — and charging multiple vehicles simultaneously is more practical than charging one vehicle very quickly.

Our installation and project management service encompasses the design and planning, DNO Liaison, Construction (Design and Management) under strict regulations, on-going maintenance, and customer support. We provide periodic safety checks, have fixed response times and a 24-hour callout, and ensure emergency support and remote management for each and every client. With our back-office platform, we provide such controls for access, electrical consumption data, statistics and fleet and user management.

This is an increasingly huge area of who we are under the VINCI Energies UK & RoI umbrella, and if we have the capacity to deliver, the work will find us, and we are discovering more and more that customers are coming to Actemium EV with increasingly ambitious designs. We possess the technical expertise to support fleets. With a greater number of electric vehicles on the road, and that figure only going to go further with the UK’s overall energy outlines for the future, clients want that infrastructure in place, and they want it now.

For us, that pressure is a privilege. We aim not just to be an electrical contracting business, but the electrical contracting business in the developing EV market.

Find out more about Actemium’s expertise in EV infrastructure.