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UTILITY WEEK | NOVEMBER 2020 | 13 Build Back Better continued overleaf What's more, for a seamless transition, any electric vehicle (EV) needs to be able to be plugged into any public charge-point with the electricity that it uses being paid for in a way that is both transparent and fair for the consumer. This will require a standard unit of charge (for example pence per kilowatt- hour) to mirror how drivers of conventional vehicles refuel today where downloading an app or buying a charge card are not nec- essary and which will require greater inter- operability and common standards. The 2019 EV Energy Taskforce report set out 21 areas that needed to be addressed. Paul Dight, a partner at Addleshaw God- dard and leader of the firm's EV and renew- ables group, highlights another thorny problem, that of establishing a second-hand market. "If battery technology develops at pace for new cars, those on sale today will not retain their value," he says. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has expressed concern over bringing forward the ban to 2030, warning that neither industry nor charging infrastruc- ture or consumers would be ready for that date. The trade body also warned that pull- ing forward the phase-out date by a decade to 2030 could have a devastating impact on the UK automotive industry and jobs, with the equally unintended consequence of undermining sales of today's low emission technologies, which are needed to make environmental improvements now. "It's such a complicated matrix of things that all need to be resolved, and that also requires money," observes Dight. "I remain open-minded whether ten years gives us long enough to get it all in place." Vincent de Rul, director of EV Solutions at EDF, also points to the scale of the challenge: "Development of new cars, batteries, distri- bution network operator capacity, charging – we need to bring all of these together to crack the EV rollout. That's hard to do, but there is certainly an appetite for it. Everyone has realised that they can't provide the solu- tion on their own." And that perhaps is at the heart of why the sector is bullish that an accelerated dead- line is the right ambition. Consumers too are warming to it. By August, EVs accounted for 4.9 per cent (44,708) of all cars registered in the year to date. That is up from just 1.1 per cent during the same period in 2019. Taskforce reconvened In an equally positive development for the sector, New says he has been asked to recon- vene the EV Energy Taskforce. "We'll con- tinue to draw together the multiple actors in the space to be a sort of clearing house to connect people and provide coherent feedback to policymakers and government about the progress of the different sectors," he explains. "Our role is also to provide an independ- ent view of how proposals in the original report are being actioned – and, where they are not progressing, set out actions – so in essence monitoring what is going on." New adds: "It definitely feels like the gov- ernment response has been positive since the report was launched and there's a lot of good work underway." He mentions the development of British Standards for smart appliances, including smart chargers as well as the work of the Energy Data Task Force on handling and sharing data "which crosses into our recommendations". He also welcomes the introduction of the £500 million rapid charging fund announced in the March 2020 budget, as a means of boosting confidence among consumers. Its purpose is to fund a portion of costs at stra- tegic sites across motorways and A roads where upgrading connections to meet future demand for high-powered charge-points is prohibitively expensive and uncommercial. It is unlikely to bring new entrants into the market, because those sites will already be sewn up, remarks Dight, but like New, he acknowledges it could boost confidence among consumers. New says that the 2030 deadline would be challenging, but that we are running out of time to meet the 2050 net zero target. The reconvened taskforce will be looking at what the major blocks are to the EV charg- ing rollout. In particular, New would like to see more local authorities and distribution network operators (DNOs) coming together to create local area network plans that can provide evidence-based decision-making around the need for connection capacity to be bolstered. Overall, there is no shortage of electricity capacity to cope with a surge in EVs. National Grid project director Graeme Cooper says that even if we all switched to EVs overnight, demand would only increase by around 10 per cent. "So we'd still be using less power as a nation than we did in 2002 and this is well within the range of manageable load fluctua- tion," he says. The key is making sure load on the system is spread and does not add to the The Green Recovery, an exclusive report from Utility Week and Addleshaw Goddard The following five pages are extracted from The Green Recovery, a new Utility Week Insight Report produced in association with Addle- shaw Goddard. Also in the report we provide a comprehensive analysis on the state of play in green generation, explore whether we are finally taking energy efficiency seriously, ask how the water industry can meet its stretching net zero targets and what's holding back the networks in their quests to go green. Members can download The Green Recovery report at utilityweek.co.uk. THE KEY OPPORTUNITIES FOR CREATING GROWTH IN THE TRANSITION TO NET ZERO THE GREEN RECOVERY October 2020 A Utility Week Insight Report in association with Addleshaw Goddard The government has set out its rapid charg- ing ambitions for England's motorways and A roads. It says the charge-points can deliver around 120-145 miles of range in just 15 min- utes for a typical EV – three times faster than those currently available. • By 2023 – at least six sites with high- powered, open access charge-points; some larger sites may have as many as 10-12. • By 2030 – aiming for there to be around 2,500 high powered charge-points. • By 2035 – expecting around 6,000 high- powered charge-points.