The significant increase in adoption of electric vehicles needs to be supported with the right public charging infrastructure in place, whilst at the same time encouraging an inviting and positive consumer experience.
Ordnance Survey geospatial data under the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) is critical to solving these challenges, enabling EV infrastructure that is fit for consumers and the ever-growing demand in the future on our path to net zero by 2050. Consumers should be able to make informed decisions regarding where to charge their electric vehicles, taking advantage of greater visibility of data sources and data sharing.
There are currently over 31,000 public chargepoints available across the UK including more than 5,800 rapid chargers. On average, over 600 new chargers are being added to the network each month. Ordnance Survey PSGA authoritative and analytical data and services can drive solutions across the public and private sectors. This includes supporting planners in understanding levels of demand in planning location of new chargepoints, designing bespoke routing applications for EVs, managing grid capacity and the informed delivery of public chargepoint services to consumers whether they are fleet vehicle drivers or consumers.
The relationship between addresses and streets, alongside the authoritative location of chargepoints is at the heart of the challenges above. For example, local authorities need to understand the location of car parks and the proportion or distribution of properties with access to off-street parking within a given area. Currently, while most electric vehicle drivers charge at home, many do not and will never have this ability. Therefore, on-street public charging is critical for consumer confidence in EVs.
We can utilise the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) and Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) to address this, as the public sector standard for referencing and sharing property and street information. These identifiers are mandated by the Open Standards Board and are released under the Open Government Licence (OGL). The UPRN and USRN act as a golden thread, providing an excellent opportunity for interoperability with chargepoint locations. By easily connecting these identifiers to OS MasterMap and AddressBase products, you will facilitate greater analytical potential, as shown in the visuals below.
The UPRN and USRN enable easier matching and analysis of chargepoint data. For highway authorities, the ability to link the location of on-street chargepoints to street works and chargepoint availability data will be critical for effective EV routing applications and asset management. Further benefits for interoperability include connections of on-street chargepoints to Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) for local authorities to manage chargepoint dwell times and to protect these parking spaces from petrol and diesel vehicles. An increasing challenge will be understanding the sometimes-blurred line between ‘public’ and ‘private’ chargepoints, for example home chargepoints which can be booked, or Local Authority car park workplace chargepoints which are made available out of hours.
Chargepoint location data analysis is also important for understanding potential demand in rural locations where chargepoint accessibility may be reduced if Chargepoint Operators (CPOs) have not previously identified suitable commercial opportunities. Local authorities will play an important role here, alongside the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV), to ensure that no community is left behind in the roll-out of chargepoint infrastructure. Further smart investment is required to enable access to the right infrastructure and ensuring consistent support and connectivity.
The authoritative analytical relationships between the UPRN, USRN and the wider address and streets ecosystem provides the opportunity to kickstart solutions in this complex data environment. Spatially matched to OS MasterMap features, you can have confidence in their authoritative source.
At the OS Map and Hack event in 2021, experts and enthusiasts worked on various methods to enhance EV infrastructure using OS data and services, as well as utilising other relevant data sources. To get started with analysing existing chargepoint data, OS Open Map-Local, our most detailed street-level mapping product available as open data, contains the Car Charging Point feature, with information sourced from the National Chargepoint Registry (NCR), which is published by OZEV and available under the OGL. The NCR is currently the most complete open chargepoint dataset available. Taking advantage of the UPRN and USRN, supported by the plethora of OS data and services available, you can quickly develop analytical models to tackle the EV infrastructure challenge.
These methods can springboard effective chargepoint location data management to solve the vital challenges of our time in developing a robust and positive chargepoint infrastructure ecosystem fit for needs of all potential EV consumers and the future.