Charging infrastructure planning tool for local authorities launched

Field Dynamics has developed a tool to help local authorities with the challenges involved with delivering electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Field Dynamics has worked with local authorities to combine advanced national datasets, cloud services and local knowledge, through a series of objective analysis sessions, resulting in the authority building a planning and implementation tool set that can be used both at the point of operational hand-off and as a vital reference resource to review processes.

The tool, called JumpStart, helps authorities and their advisors to create strong data-led policy, gain stakeholder support, secure government funding and engage with external suppliers.

JumpStart provides local authorities with evidence and data that helps them predict future take up and understand the make-up of their local area. It enables them to realise the true scale of the challenge ahead of them and models potential infrastructure sites that align with their overall goals.

The five-step approach goes through methodical stages to achieve the ultimate “evidence stack”:

Step 1 – The first step focuses on defining a Planning Horizon and how to substantiate this with solid evidence. Authorities are guided through the different public tools available to understand how different scenarios may impact the demands on their infrastructure.

Step 2 – The second step builds on the first by modelling the Scale of Challenge facing the local authority. This is based on the behaviours and needs of the current residents and gives the organisation a of view of what EV resources they will need in preparation for the Planning Horizon.

Step 3 – The third step creates a set of Demand Zones: recognising that not all areas within a region require the same level of support. For example, suburban areas with high levels of off-street parking will require considerably less support than dense areas with predominantly on-street parking.  This stage is supported by advanced data analytics that substantiate the difference between zone classifications.

Step 4 – By this stage there will be an understanding of how many electric vehicles the local authority is aiming to support, when and where. Therefore, the fourth step encourages local authorities to select ideal EV charging locations within the Demand Zones for the allocated services. Drawing on considerable local knowledge and interaction with multiple stakeholders, Field Dynamics implement their CatchmentModeller solution to agree the optimal sites within the different zones for the location of the EV charging services.

Step 5 – The final step is a combination of all the effort and analysis of the preceding stages of the approach. The result is a report and a customised portfolio of data sets, which presents the substantiated decisions and assessments that can be relied upon for future policy and strategy making. The portfolio of crucial data sets can be retained and called upon for ongoing review.

Field Dynamics Managing Director, Ben Allan explains that “this methodical approach prepares local authorities for the complex process ahead of them and provides them with the tools needed to develop a strategy, apply for grants and create relationships with commercial partnerships.

“The data output from this approach can be used to kickstart the EV charging infrastructure planning process and tweak the strategy over the long term.“