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UTILITY WEEK | DECEMBER 2020 | 33 Operational Excellence But, she says, this cannot be a case of the energy system imposing its preferred methods on the public. In addition, the views of non-drivers must be given equal prominence to motorists. She tells Utility Week: "We know from talking to coun- cils and vulnerable customers that there are real con- cerns about excessive street furniture. We have to find solutions that are not intrusive." One of the potential solutions being trialled by a large consortium, with UKPN as a partner, is a technology that is slotted into the pavement with no permanent footprint or street clutter because the hardware is only visible when a vehicle is charging. The technology has been developed by Trojan Energy and will be trialled across two London boroughs – Brent and Camden – as part of the Subsurface Technology for Electric Pathways (STEP) project. The company aims to install 200 connectors in the two boroughs over the next few months. EV owners will be invited to trial the service and provided their own portable lance, which is plugged into a flush socket in the ground. Each grid connection will be able to serve up to 18 connectors. UKPN is one of several partners on the project, along- side Octopus Energy, which will be recruiting some of its customers for the trial. Octopus customers taking part will be able to link energy consumption from the charge point to their home energy bill. Triallists who are not with Octopus will pay Trojan directly for the energy they use. The electricity will be offered at fixed rates, with two tiers of pricing – for a fast 22kW charge or a lower 7kW level. STEP has so far raised more than £1 million in pri- vate funding, which unlocked £3 million from Innovate UK. It was also successful in securing £850,000 from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strat- egy's EV charging competition in August, for a follow- on project – SmartSTEP, where 100 charge points will be upgraded to a smart system. Element Energy, a strategic energy consultancy spe- cialising in the analysis of low-carbon energy, is leading the STEP and SmartSTEP projects. Sarah Clements, senior consultant at Element Energy, who manages the project, tells Utility Week the trial is expected to go live in March next year, although Covid has already delayed the project once. She is hoping for at least 60 participants. She stresses that the project will be evaluating the public reaction as much as the performance of the technology. "We want to know what EV drivers, prospective EV drivers and even those who currently have no interest in being an EV driver think of it," she says. She explains that there will be a before and aer sur- vey for the first group, led by the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds, assessing whether participants' charging habits change over the trial. At the end, there will also be polls for those considering a low- carbon vehicle and gauging whether the trial has made them more likely to ditch the diesel, and for observers on whether the project was disruptive. Clements says that the flexibility offered by the STEP solution to charge in multiple parking spaces could resolve tensions between EV drivers and other residents. "It's been quite controversial having dedicated bays and it's also frustrating for drivers if they can't access that bay. One of the things we really want to understand from the trial is how people park. Do they move around or do they try to park in the same place every time?" She adds: "We know there's a demand there. There is one borough in Camden where there have been 100 requests for charge points in a single street." While this project will only take place in the capital, Clements says that it is not "London-centric" and could conceivably work in any built-up area. Privitera agrees that there appear to be no barriers to rolling this out across UKPN's areas. EV charging on-street is already possible in some areas through lamppost connections, while other trials are underway. Privitera says: "I would expect a mix of different solu- tions. We want to work with local authorities to decide what is the best approach for them and work from there." James Wallin, digital editor "We want to know what EV drivers, prospective EV drivers and even those who currently have no interest in being an EV driver think of it." Sarah Clements, senior consultant, Element Energy, "We know from talking to councils and vulnerable customers that there are real concerns about excessive street furniture. We have to find solutions that are not intrusive." Dr Giulia Privitera, low carbon technologies delivery manager, UKPN The STEP system uses lances inserted into flush roadside sockets