BT Start UK Trial to Convert Broadband Street Cabinets into EV Chargers
UK ISP BT and its digital incubation team, Etc. (that is their actual name), has this morning kicked off the first pilot of an Electric Vehicle (EV) charger that has been repurposed from one of Openreach’s old street cabinets, which was “traditionally used to store broadband and phone cabling“. Up to 60,000 more could follow.
BT originally announced last July 2023 that the first phase of their EV charging pilots (here) was planned to begin in Northern Ireland during the Autumn of 2023. But clearly that didn’t happen and instead the 2-year pilot programme will finally get underway this month.
Etc. has today confirmed that its “first installation location” will now be in East Lothian (Scotland) instead of N.Ireland, with further pilots to roll out across the UK in the “coming months“. The proposed plan could eventually see BT and Openreach “convert or upgrade” up to 60,000 street cabinets (from a potential pool of 90,000). The operator previously clarified to us that the focus here is on their FTTC (VDSL2) / DSLAM broadband cabinets, rather than PCPs.
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The charging solution works by retrofitting the cabinets with a device that enables renewable energy to be shared to a charge point alongside the existing broadband service with no need to create a new power connection. EV charging can be deployed to cabinets that are in-use for current copper broadband services, or in those due for retirement, depending on the space and power available to the unit. Once the cabinet is no longer needed for broadband, as nationwide full fibre rollout progresses, the broadband equipment is recycled, and additional EV charge points can be added.
The move supports the UK Government’s ambitions to increase the number of EV charge points from 53,000 today to 300,000 by 2030. Access to charging is currently creating a significant barrier to EV purchase for many. BT Group’s recent research found that 60% of people think the UK’s EV charging infrastructure is inadequate, with 78% of petrol and diesel drivers saying not being able to conveniently charge an EV is a barrier to adoption.
Tom Guy, Managing Director, Etc. at BT Group, said:
“Our new charging solution is a huge step in bringing EV charging kerbside and exploring how we can address key barriers customers are currently facing. Working closely with local councils in Scotland and more widely across the UK, we are at a critical stage of our journey in tackling a very real customer problem that sits at the heart of our wider purpose to connect for good.
This is a key step in our mission to build products and services right now that work for the future, with positive transformation at the heart.”
The idea here is generally that the operator’s own staff and engineers will be given preferential access, not only during the pilot but possibly also during the commercialisation phase too (i.e. the public could expect to get access if an Openreach/BT van isn’t already parked and using the charger). The original announcement similarly said that the first pilot location would initially only be open for use by their staff, but that will change as more are added.
As we’ve said before, this isn’t going to work in every area, since not all cabinets are suitably positioned and there may be other obstacles too (e.g. issues of council approval, road access, physical location etc.). Likewise, street side chargers need to be kept as small as possible, which means that they’ll only support slower charging speeds (up to 7.8kW). We should point out that a lot of their cabinets typically use no more than a few hundred watts, but the power supply can be upgraded and without needing major works.
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Focus of BT’s EV Charging Pilot
Through the trials, Etc. will scope a range of different technical, commercial and operational considerations with bringing this EV charge point network online, including:
· Technical – cabinet location, power availability, customer accessibility, digital customer experience and engineering considerations.
· Civil planning – location, local council engagement, permissions and physical accessibility.
· Commercial – public funding options, private investment, partnership, and wider financial modelling to establish a route to commercial benefit for the Group.
· Operational – as a dedicated BT Group venture or in partnership with others.
Doing all this at the same time as gradually retiring their old copper-line based network in favour of full fibre (FTTP) infrastructure seems like a sensible and cost-efficient approach. The move would also be good for Openreach, which is already deep into the process of converting (replacing) all of its diesel fleet to electric by 2030, which reflects around 28,000 vans across the UK that are used for essential work every day. Various models from Renault (here) and Vauxhall (here) have already been deployed.
However, it remains unclear how much BT will charge consumers to fill up their EVs, which is somewhat of a contentious issue given the high price of electricity right now and the tendency of some EV charging networks to charge astronomical sums (this does vary, some are much more affordable). The number of chargers they end up deploying may also depend, at least in part, on how much public subsidy they can access from key government schemes (around £1.6bn of public funding has been committed up to 2030).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I have had my EV for 2 years, I have used a slow charger twice in that time. Once was at a Tescos to see how it worked when I first got my car, by the time I had done my shopping (approx 15 minutes) it had added around 10 miles of range.
The other time was Christmas Eve, car park at Tescos was rammed and there where cars everywhere wanting to park. Luckily there was 3 EV charging spaces so I just parked there and plugged in my car. Ooohhhh… the looks I got!
These slow chargers aren’t worth it unless you’re going to be at the location for well over an hour and then as you mention, the cost that some of these companies charge you is mind blowing.
Easier and cheaper to just do it at home over night.
True, but a lot of people live in properties where they can’t charge at home (flats etc.), which places a reliance on public charging infrastructure. Plus, if you have to do a long trip, they’re often more of a necessity.
“Easier and cheaper to just do it at home over night.”
This is a common fallacy I’ve seen among EV enthusiasts, it seems like allot of them think that everyone has a drive with their car(s) on it and can easily put a charger there.
On street parking is quite common in certain places e.g. London and even proposed solutions I’ve seen such as trenches in the path to allow cables to go from homes assume you’re able to get a space in front of the house.
Even where I live now, where every house has a drive, on street parking is still common e.g. multiple cars, guests, etc.
And as Mark says, long trips. Some places I’ve stayed at such as holiday parks where you park right next to the accommodation can easily work but others you park some distance away, hotels, etc.
Biggest issue I’ve always had with the EV mandate is that I don’t believe the public usable infrastructure will be ready for a ban on ICE vehicles.
@Mark Jackson and the problem of not being able to charge at home due to living in flats or no driveway will put people off. Having to charge at a public charging point will make a EV more expensive to run than a diesel car. A mate have a BMW diesel car and was told by a car salesperson that it cost lest to run than a Tesla, and that is when the tesla is being charged at home.
If more work places had chargers, and they were cheap enough to use, then maybe, but I can’t see that happening, certainly when a work place has a few hundred people.
The cabinet down the road from me will never be used in that way, it is on a junction and there is no where safe to park a car.
Seems like Openreach wants to make some more money, best thing is to get rid of the cabinets full stop if they are not being used.
Real world Tesla Model efficiency 4.27 miles per kWh. Intelliegent Octopus Go tariff 7.5p per kWh.
Approx cost 1.76p per mile.
Assume BMW diesel real world consumption 60 mpg = 13.22 miles per litre. Todays average deisel price (from RAC) 148.13p per litre.
Approx cost per mile 11.20p per mile.
EV servicing costs are also much lower than for ICE vehicles.
Car salesman speak with forked tongue.
‘Seems like Openreach wants to make some more money’
This BT want to make more money? Pretty shocking stuff.
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/BT.A/bt-group-plc/company-page
They aren’t going to even attempt to do it with every cabinet however they aren’t tied to the cabinet for a location, they will have to run cable to the charging point it isn’t going to be embedded in the side of the cabinet unless it’s in a really convenient place. The cabinet shells mean no need to get permission to stand a new cabinet so a really good idea, especially in conservation areas.
‘This is a common fallacy I’ve seen among EV enthusiasts, it seems like allot of them think that everyone has a drive with their car(s) on it and can easily put a charger there.’
I can’t speak for all of them but I’m abundantly aware that everyone doesn’t have a drive: I lived in London for enough years to know this. However, between residents’ parking permits, changes to regulations and following the example of for instance Amsterdam and getting the 230v points everywhere feasible it’s possible to make a pretty big dent.
If there’s space to park a car there should at least some of the time be space for a charger. How we handle the national grid is a far more interesting issue and EVs are likely to be both a part of the problem and, through EV to grid, the solution.
My next EV is going to be capable of EV to grid and if I buy the same model has enough juice in it to power my house throughout the evening without making much of a dent in the battery easing draw on the grid at peak time then may be topped up off-peak.
@XGS
Now that I think about it, unless I missed something, I’m surprised councils haven’t started to just lease out lamp posts or installation rights for street based EV chargers to private companies.
I’m not saying this is necessarily a good idea, both short and long term, but it sounds like a relatively easy way for the councils to try and look green in the media, whilst being cheap and making a few quid with the side effect of potentially making EVs more viable for certain members of the public.
@Winston Smith, you are on about one tariff from one provider, not everyone is with Octopus, also electric car’s energy use increase when you put on heating and lights. Also, why should the salesman say these things if he is trying to sell a car? My mate told him how much it cost to run his BMW and the sale bloke said that is cheaper than the Tesla. My mate don’t keep his cars long enough to worry about servicing, gets a new one every couple of years.
I have also seen on another forum someone saying that a BMW is more efficient than a Tesla. Makes no difference to me, I can’t drive, but I see EV have their own problems, weight, batteries and the UK infrastructure to support them. Openreach EV chargers is not going to make a lot of difference to that. The infrastructure is one of the reasons my partner have decided she is not going for an E.V
@Ad47uk
“also electric car’s energy use increase when you put on heating and lights.”
Same applies to petrol and diesel cars, the energy has to come from somewhere. EVs with heatpumps will minimise the impact of using heating and the vast majority of current EVs have LED lights so the impact will be negligible.
@Ad47uk
I’ve provided verifiable evidence, you’ve repeated hearsay from a forum.
It reaffirms your predjudice, so you believe it anyway.
You’re entitled to your opinion, you’re not entitled to your own facts.
@Ad47uk
“@Winston Smith, you are on about one tariff from one provider, not everyone is with Octopus, also electric car’s energy use increase when you put on heating and lights. Also, why should the salesman say these things if he is trying to sell a car? My mate told him how much it cost to run his BMW and the sale bloke said that is cheaper than the Tesla. My mate don’t keep his cars long enough to worry about servicing, gets a new one every couple of years.
I have also seen on another forum someone saying that a BMW is more efficient than a Tesla. Makes no difference to me, I can’t drive, but I see EV have their own problems, weight, batteries and the UK infrastructure to support them. Openreach EV chargers is not going to make a lot of difference to that. The infrastructure is one of the reasons my partner have decided she is not going for an E.V”
This is just complete nonsense. There is simply no way your friend’s BMW is cheaper to run than a Tesla. Even if the Tesla owner couldn’t charge from home and had to use the Tesla DC charging network, it would still be significantly cheaper. Tesla per kW rates are usually a lot cheaper than others.
I don’t own a Tesla, but do own an EV. My cheap rate is 15p per kW and it is still massively cheaper to run than my Diesel car. I’d love for this sales person to provide evidence of this, which he won’t be able to.
If your mate only kept his car for 2 years, that would mean at least 1, but probably 2 services, which no doubt would add a significant amount to the running costs.
Provide the specs of the BMW model and engine size etc and I’m sure we can find a more accurate fair comparison.
@Winston Smith
Did a splash and dash on a high power charger with a friend in his Tesla model 3 only yesterday, the charger put 90 miles on the gauge and the charge cost £16 something…
That’s 17.8p per mile…
Just sayin’
@Chris W, Air con in ICE cars will use more fuel, but heaters use electric or used to, so I presume they still do, the same with lights, also it is not so easy to go and top up with electric than it is with Petrol
@Winston Smith, you provided evidence from on energy company, not everyone uses the same energy company and no doubt a lot of these offers is to get people to buy EVs. I bet the price of energy will increase once enough people have them,
@Krabs, I am only going by what has have told me and as for what model he has, I have no idea, I don’t see it that often, He is not a mate I see a lot, I met him via another mate who have sadly pass on, and we meet now and again for a beer. All I know, it is a new BMW, sporty thing which is awful to get in and out of the back and is the most uncomfortable car I have been in, apart from the other BMW he had before that.
He did look at getting a BMW EV, but I think the price put him off and he does a fair few miles for his work, so he is also worried about running out of energy.
As for service, I presume that is included for free for the first couple of years, but I could be wrong
How many miles do you do withy your EV? The bloke who has the Tesla down the road from me is mainly local, now, and again he will go off in the summer, my mate drives for miles.
I am not against EVs, but there are still things to sort out before people go crazy for them, infrastructure is one problem. as i have said before, I don’t drive, so I am not bothered, my partner has now decided she is not going to get an EV,
Looking on the net and websites, all manufactures seem to be pushing electric and hybrids, even going to a saleroom, they push them. she went to a local Toyota saleroom and they kept pushing electric, even their website is all electric.
We are going to a showroom just a few roads away from me, I could walk there it is a ten minutes walk, they are mainly an Audi dealer, but they sell others, they have Toyota there and she is thinking of getting an Aygo, it will be different from the Land rover, but will certainly be cheaper to keep on the road. That is if she doesn’t change her mind, as it will certainly be an adjustment after driving a large Landover for a few years.
I have an electric bike, that is fine for me, it gets me where i need to go.
This is a common fallacy I’ve seen among EV enthusiasts, it seems like allot of them think that everyone has a drive with their car(s) on it and can easily put a charger there.” true but if you can then it’s worth it. I charge my car overnight at 5p/Kwh evenings and weekends. A Kona is about £3.96 to charge IIRC the last time I checked the smart meter I posted this like a few days before this article – so you are welcome. Funny how only the fan boys get any credit.
It should be pointed out that many of their street cabinets are on corners and junctions where it would be impossible to legally or safely park so I find it hard to believe that 2/3 of the cabinets would be suitable.
Looking at the above photo, it looks like they are just using the cab for power and the actual charger can be several feet away.
They don’t have to place the charger itself exactly where the cabinet is. But placing it further away does carry a higher cost. In the picture you can see that the charger is, I’d guess, about 2-3 metres from the cabinet. But clearly, as the article says, this isn’t going to work for all of their cabinet locations. I suspect the total they end up building will be a lot less than 60k. Probably less than 10-20k, but hard to tell at this stage.
If the charger is several metres away it rather makes it pointless and costly as the footpath would need to be dug up which is expansive. You might as well use the lamp post for EV chargers. The supply to the street cabinets is limited as well so that might need to be upgraded to provide more power
Presumably these are all the sorts of questions that a trial is trying to find answers to
Looks like they’ve caveated it with ‘up to’. Presumably a cost-benefit analysis will be done if they decide to proceed.
Tapping the power the street lamps are using means paying the power company to joint the low voltage supply again, then trench to the charging pedestal where a meter and other kit is needed. Can’t just tap off the lamps. This is a device into a cabinet already powered with the meter, etc, then a cable to the charging pedestal. It can potentially make sense and is way cheaper than paying the power company to put a joint on the LV cable, which you’d have to dig to anyway.
@Big Dave – this was my exact same first thought. The cabinets by me are at a junction either side of a road. There’s no way they could be used as safe EV charging points.
There are plenty of overhead power lines in the area, so having them on lampposts seems a more viable solution. That being said, there’s no way the local grid could handle 100% of homes charging their cars overnight, whether from their own supply or from a lamppost.
As the country moves more towards full fibre, and eventually all these old cabinets become redundant it seems like a good use of infrastructure. Already most cabinets (at least round my area) are at locations where there is a large verge for openreach to park their vans when working on these cabinets this actually seems like a great idea.
I’m sure that there is an argument to be made for more fast chargers, but a 240v connector is better than nothing in a pinch, especially if your visiting a friend for a couple of hours.
You are right. 240v is more than enough for 95% of the population to get to and from work everyday with a charge overnight.
We just need to accept that a myriad of solutions and designs will be required to service everyone. But instead most thick-headed gammons just target any one single part of the solution and revert back to burning baby dinosaurs. Just about every obstacle they present has a solution now, or there will be one with the right political will. Just look at Norway!
Bob: “most thick-headed gammons”
A generalised pejorative term for people of a specific ethnicity has a name. Do you consider yourself a racist, Bob?
I take it back. The gammons of this land are an oppressed, marginalised group that for far too long have been underrepresented in our society. Whilst I share their racial characteristics, I am quite clearly racist towards them. I am forever regretful if I have hurt any gammon’s delicate snowflake sensitivities because they are the last group of people that would would mistreat others in the way that I have mistreated them.
Gammon is actually incredibly tasty and I am sorry I have besmirched it such a way by comparing it to the average Daily Mail reader.
Well of course, Bob, you’re so much better than them. Sad thing is that you probably think you’re a liberal, fair minded person, yet you couldn’t be more wrong.
As for “sharing the same characteristics”, what of it? Your insulting language was aimed at a particular ethnic group, who you presumably characterise by blessing them with a whole set of opinions and beliefs that you don’t approve of.
Yes. My ethnic group.
I hope there is going to be an overstay charge of some kind to stop people from hogging the space. Imagine not being able to charge because some tw@ decides to keep their car plugged in for 2-3 days!
This could be the solution for EV’s although still way off.
https://www.digit.fyi/electric-vehicle-flow-battery/
The big problem with batteries is to fast charge hen it needs a large amount of power and that in turn generates a large amount of heat
Tried the link but my Malwarebytes installation said it was dodgy ( Malware ) so didn’t continue…
As “Big Dave” mentioned the number of viable cabinets that can be used for such a modification for public use may be a lot less than envisaged. Where I live the cabinet locations are like Post boxes and are usually located where car parking is impossible. Either near road junctions and/or school crossings and double yellow lines. There are also those located on housing estates where multiple car ownership means lots of 50/50 road/pavement parking already. I can imagine the “bun fights” when those with driveways find their access partially blocked by someone charging an EV for several hours. The street light / charger combo would be more sensible.
@Bob The promise of flow batteries generally is that you don’t need to charge them in-situ; instead of being a single unit (as current batteries are), a flow battery is a tank of “charged” fluid, the electrochemical mechanism, and a tank of “discharged” fluid. To charge them, you put electricity into the electrochemical mechanism, and it converts discharged fluid into charged, pushing it into the charged fluid tank, and when you draw power from them, you put charged fluid into the electrochemical mechanism and it supplies electricity, pushing the fluid into the discharged fluid tank.
In theory, you can avoid the need for fast charging a flow battery by draining the tank of discharged fluid and filling the tank of charged fluid. You can then recharge the fuel by putting the discharged fluid in a different flow battery’s discharged fluid tank, and draining charged fluid from that battery (which can be done at a different rate).
If this can be made to work well, it’s ideal for cars; you can delegate the charging to slow chargers that run when the grid wants them running and stop when the grid is under heavy load, but you fill your car by moving fluids around, which is something we’re already good at doing quickly (your local petrol station has pumps that can move 20 litres per minute per pump, if not more).
There’s £2m houses in my town with no off-street parking.
No way people who live there can manage with an EV until things like this become *very* much more common (unless they can charge at work, of course). Slow chargers will get hogged for hours on end.
Seems a sensible use of the infrastructure though, given these boxes tended to have healthy power supplies already. Main challenge for users will be the cost. Overnight wholesale rates on the grid are near zero most of the year, but these will still be at 70-90p a unit. We need a supplier to start offering 10p + 1.2x grid rate or similar.
Not going to happen. They have to make up for the billions lost in petrol and diesel taxes
@AleS
Try this.
https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2018/august/headline_601603_en.html
Thanks, interesting. Perhaps when used in conjunction with a fuel cell the future of motoring.
Perhaps with all his Billions Mr Musk could invest in their research ?
It is not possible to use only “renewable energy” as often the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. Also, taking into account the energy losses before the electricity even gets to the chargers it is doubtful whether this approach leads to any real reductions in carbon emissions at all. As I type this renewables are producing less than 30% of the electricity being consumed in the UK, according to Energy Dashboard.
If only certain areas in the UK had plans for tidal energy…
Will they do a trial of a trial of a trial lol….
Those cabinets must have single phase 32amp supplies, which is neat but the numbers don’t add up. (230V x 32A = 7.36kW max) Assuming the kit inside consumes a nominal 1kW minus cable loses (the >3m from the cab to the charge point) the maximum charging is only going to be around 5kW per cabinet. Which means your average EV is going to be parked up for a very long time.
Adding one more public charge point for one vehicle per day is hardly a good way to improve the charging infrastructure. Boondoggle anyone?
> your average EV is going to be parked up for a very long time.
All cars spend the majority of their time parked up, so this is a statement of the obvious. Hopefully they will have an overstay fee to discourage people staying connected for days.
What makes you think the cabinets “must have single phase 32amp supplies”? On ENWL’s site [for example] they suggest broadband cabinets can be fed with an unmetered connection, but that’s limited to 500W!
Presumably if they’re unmetered now, they definitely *won’t* be if they’re used for charging cars.
>All cars spend the majority of their time parked up, so this is a statement of the obvious.
All cars spend the majority of their time hooked up to the only public charger on the street, is that what you’re saying is obvious?
>What makes you think the cabinets “must have single phase 32amp supplies”?
The article states the cabinets will supply 7.8kW, they ain’t doing that from cabs limited to 500W are they now..
Anything else “obvious” I missed?
I did 600 miles of driving in Scotland last month and the difference in charging availability between Scotland and England/Wales is night and day, so it would be great if they’d started in England or Wales instead!
@Ad47uk: Now that BT are converting some of their street cabinets for EV charging, surely it would be a good idea to contact them and see if they could also leave a special lead and connector from the cabinets so you could charge your EB, (Electric Bike)
Personal experience tells me most of these cabinets only feature a 16mm AL CNE service installed into a street lighting cut out fused at 16 or 25A they are typically unmetered so they are normally limited to 500w demand treated as a street light would be.
However some of the earlier ones did have a 35mm AL CNE service cable and fused at 60A same as historic Telewest cabinets. Its good press but I doubt it’ll go too far also expect an up-tick is service faults affecting OR DSLAM cabinets most were connected on price work.
It’s irrelevant how much power a street cabinet can or cannot supply (the numbers quoted don’t add up for a start), it will never be enough to satisfy potential future demand if (when) EV’s take over..
It’s a publicity stunt likely aimed at siphoning off more public money in to BT’s coffers and something the government can then claim as them doing something positive as/when they need to throw another dead cat on the table.
Given that BT’s chairman is Adrian Crosier, the CEO of Royal Mail when the Horizon system was implemented, can we expect that the charging units will claim to have delivered vastly more charge than they did, discharge your battery rather than charging it, and then sue you for not paying for the electricity BT stole from you?
To those whimpering about the infrastructure, or the need for rapid charging: The point here is that adding more 7kW outputs is relatively cheap to do.
If there’s then an abundance of charging (see the Ubitricity street lamp chargers around London), then someone who might otherwise have refused to buy an EV might think “Now, I can charge easily when I go to location X or visit friend Y”.
These won’t solve the need for rapid charging – but that doesn’t mean that this can’t be investigated. Sure, some FTTC cabinets are not near sensible parking, but others are; perhaps partway down a street full of houses with no off-street parking? Oh, what’s that? A problem being tackled with lots of little, simple positive changes?