‘Bonkers’ to subsidise dumb EV chargers

The boss of Ovo Energy has said it is “bonkers” for the government to continue subsidising “dumb” electric vehicle (EV) chargers, given the huge cost savings on offer from smart charging.

Chief executive Stephen Fitzpatrick also called for the energy industry to work together to develop smart charging standards to avoid “heavy-handed regulation” and prevent a “catastrophic” threat to national security.

Speaking at the Utility Week Energy Summit in London, Fitzpatrick told the audience: “I think it’s bonkers that the government is subsidising the installation of dumb, unconnected charging points even today, and I don’t think there’s a firm deadline for when it’s going to stop.”

“The path of least resistance for consumers is to plug their car in as soon as they arrive home and somehow, we expect to avoid the need for massive investment in upgraded networks and generation capacity,” he explained.

A recent study concluded that smart and vehicle-to-grid charging could cut the annual cost of integrating EVs into the energy system by up to half by 2030.

Fitzpatrick said the smart meter rollout has demonstrated the importance of developing the right charging standards.

“If we as an industry don’t work together on agreeing on how we’re going to make these assets interoperable, it’s going to be very bad news for us as an industry and for consumers, and ultimately we’re going to face much more heavy-handed regulation,” he told delegates at the event.

He also drew attention the potential consequences for cyber-security for failing to do so.

“A distributed fleet of a million electric vehicles that are connected to the grid but without adequate forethought in terms of how we manage high levels of security would present, I think, probably the greatest national security risk that we have in Britain.

“The idea that we could have a foreign agent who could hack a system that would throw 7GW of demand onto our grid instantaneously would be catastrophic for national security.”