A report to Transport and Environment Committee has outlined work between Edinburgh Council and Scottish Futures Trust to develop a business case to determine future financing and delivery models for expanding the city’s charging infrastructure.
It is anticipated this will support the procurement of a commercial charge point operating partner to deliver most of the charge points while sharing any profits, as well as helping the council to unlock access to funding to install more chargers. Forecasting work has concluded that around 500 additional chargers would be needed to achieve a comprehensive network of public charging points.
The update to the committee included a new enforcement and tariff regime agreed as part of the budget setting process for 2023/24, to ensure that tariffs cover recent increases to the cost of electricity. Changes have also been made to increase maximum stay periods for rapid chargers and to remove overnight enforcement for fast chargers, in response to feedback from residents.
In September 2022, the Council completed the installation of 81 on-street charge points, creating an additional 141 EV charging bays across the city. Thanks to a successful bid for funding through the On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), provided by the UK Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and the Energy Saving Trust (EST), a further 22 public charge points in residential areas, creating 44 charging bays, are currently being installed.
