Part S provides clear challenges as well as opportunities for the car charging industry, however while the solutions are available, the requirements for major housing developments remain somewhat mysterious. James Parker spoke to specialist charging firm Fortis EV to find out more.
Part S of the Building Regulations was introduced in 2022 as part of the new set of regulations intended to assist the UK housebuilding sector move towards the much lower carbon emissions that will be required from new homes by the Future Homes Standard, due in 2025. The aims are laudable, but rolling it out across our variety of new housing schemes, from detached dwellings to multi-occupancy, is going to take a huge amount of focus.
The requirements of Part S essentially mean that all new developments (as well as major renovations of 10 or more dwellings), are required to provide EV charging points for residents, but there are a series of issues in terms of the charging infrastructure needed both now and for the future which can make compliance complicated.
The minimum required by the new standard for new builds is that charging points must either be provided for all the parking spaces associated with the new dwellings, or the number of dwellings that a car park in a new scheme serves. Where there are accessible parking spaces, at least one must have a charging point or a future connection for a point to be added at a later date. And if a scheme has surplus car parking spaces (ie more spaces than dwellings), then ‘cable routes’ can be installed for future charging points – this is a requirement for schemes over 10 dwellings.
Some of the factors for new schemes are unambiguous – charging points have to provide 7 kW ‘trickle charge’ as a minimum, and methods for installing single points per home are fairly established. The challenge is for firms focusing on developments over 10 homes, in terms of working out how much infrastructure for future EV charging they need to provide; covered car parks are a whole different story.
Developers therefore need to establish exactly what they are going to need for compliance, both now and in the future. This could create some confusion, and the guidance in Part S is not totally clear.
Finally, Part S brings in a price cap on EV charging point installation designed to ensure businesses and consumers are not unfairly treated as they switch to EVs – £3,600 per unit. But there are provisions in Part S for where this needs to be exceeded, arguably creating further confusion.
However, according to Will Temperley of charging point specialist provider Fortis EV, this budget constraint doesn’t provide an issue for basic installations: “It’s fairly straightforward, there are a lot of good systems out there now.” However, he adds “there are so many variants”; these include integrating solar and using it to charge the vehicle overnight if battery storage is present, or using Wi-Fi voice control to turn a charger on and off as needed.
Sparking interest
In terms of the charging points themselves, Regulation 44J sets out the minimum standards that must be complied with in order to pass Building Control under the new Part S.
As well as being able to power each parking space they cover, and be compatible with all vehicle types, each charging point has to run on its own dedicated circuit. This, plus the fact
they are covered by Part P of the Building Regs governing electrical safety, means that they must be installed by a qualified electrician with the appropriate training and certification. The work done has to be inspected and approved by either a registered ‘competent person,’ or local building control, who will then present the installation with a Compliance Certificate.
There are ‘tethered’ and ‘untethered charging points – the former have charging cables permanently tethered to the station, but the latter are also termed ‘universal sockets’ and are the required solution under Part S. The Regs allow for tethered points in exceptional circumstances, but only when the vehicle requirements are explicitly clear. They offer versatility for users to charge different cars at different times, if they have different connection types.
Fortis EV – embracing the challenge
In founding Fortis EV in 2020, Will Temperley was moving into a new sector from civils and foundations specifically, having seen the opportunity to apply Fortis Foundations’ experience to deliver charging points in both commercial and domestic markets. Fortis EV doesn’t design the products, but selects from a range of different solutions from providers to present a customer with a workable solution, and installs it.
Temperley says that from the firm’s experience thus far in the housebuilding sector, while installing a single charging point to the outside of a house, or a charge point system for refurbishments, is relatively simple, the overall picture in terms of what needs to be installed for the future in larger schemes is “a bit of a minefield.” While the requirements are fairly clear up to 10 car spaces, “above that it’s not really clear what’s going to be happening.” Retrofit of course brings its own share of issues, in particular homes lacking off-street parking, but solutions are available such as underground charging points, and taking the feed from lamposts.
He says the new build challenges become more apparent when it comes to larger dwellings and larger developments where there may be multiple car parking spaces. He says that the “infrastructure needs to be put in place, for future proofing schemes.” Temperley adds that while he is aware that cable ducts and routes are being installed for future installations, “not a lot of (developers) are doing more than they need to at this stage.” He says that the actual commissioning of the charging points will be down to whoever is going to manage those facilities on completion, or once they are sold on.
According to Temperley, the biggest issue is “who’s paying for the electricity,” where the installations are in the forms of car parks rather than individual spaces for individual homes. In this scenario it tends to be the EV providers themselves, who already operate charging points in major car parks; he believes “you’re going to need an external company,” but says that this is “very much in its infancy.” The challenge is the problem in multi-occupancy of the allocation of points to the correct person, to avoid the scenario, says Temperley of: “my neighbour’s been parking in my spot and using my electricity meter, who’s paying for that?”
Fortis is currently tendering for some larger developments in partnership with major electricity suppliers, after providing full ‘turnkey’ projects for a variety of housing schemes, building on its expertise in the commercial sector. A large amount of their work on domestic instals is burying and capping off cabling infrastructure for future charger installations.
Will believes that in multi-occupancy projects, a charge point station will be required to charge per hour, with designated logins or cards. “People are going to have to share systems, and ‘buddy’ systems are starting to come in.”
The company is now looking at the realities of multi-occupancy homes and larger developments, as does the whole industry if we are to provide the EV infrastructure hoped for. The best-case scenario of battery storage and PV providing power for both the home and a vehicle may be some way off for such schemes, but the industry is developing practical solutions.
Despite the Government watering down several of its net zero goals, the zero-emission vehicle mandate means there remains a target for 80% of all new car sales to be electric by 2030.
This means that developers, electricians and the EV industry generally need to get together now to discover best practice, and the Government needs to focus on increasing industry capacity to an unprecedented scale to deliver the installations.
Will Temperley is founder of Fortis Foundations