Citizens Advice response to DfT’s consultation on Electric Vehicle Smart Charging
Citizens Advice response to DfT’s consultation on Electric Vehicle Smart Charging 229 KB
Citizens Advice supports the Government’s proposal to set device level standards for smart chargers, with a long term decision on enduring technology and wider requirements on chargepoint operators to be made at a later point.
We recommend the government:
agree indicators with stakeholders, which once met instigate the transition to a long term approach. These indicators should be transparently shared to encourage stakeholders to share evidence regularly and support an informed transition;
clearly understands the magnitude of risk (to both individual consumers and the grid) of proceeding with a phased approach, where additional obligations are not placed on chargepoint operators, and ensures these risks are mitigated;
apply similar proposals as has been suggested in this consultation to public chargepoints, which have a similar rate of charging and duration of use;
assess and encourage the potential for industry collaboration on security to reduce the financial burden ultimately passed on to consumers, where reasonable;
ensure consumers can retain smart functionality regardless of which supplier, tariff or chargepoint operator they choose and that the value of smart charging is competitive and passed onto consumers;
ensure any default settings are designed to benefit consumers and reflect a changing energy system;
ensure consumers can access data about charging events and that this data is relayed in a consumer-friendly way, alongside other relevant data sources that provide meaningful information;
produce long term standards, which are consistent with international standards so that costs are not increased for British consumers; and
assess the need, benefits and possible risks of sharing live usage data from domestic chargers with networks, given there is a breadth of evidence indicating consumer concern for data sharing.