BT Group to turn old street cabinets into EV chargers

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67873890

I wonder exactly what this means:-

Engineers will be able to retrofit 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 connection, because they are already connected to a power source.


I would not have thought that the incoming 230/400 volt supply would have the capacity for 7 kW (single phase) or 21 kW (three phase) charging for one EV let alone two.

Cheers!

But most of these cabinets will be on the wrong side of a pavement or on grass verges so hardly the ideal positioning for having trailing cables to vehicles. More PR spin by BT and the government methinks..

They do this when they can’t even be bothered to provide fibre to places with long standing extremely unreliable copper infrastructure, nor will they replace the knackered cables with new.

Customers & former customers with an extremely unreliable service who were ignored for FTTC welll over a decade ago, with driveways, verges & roads constantly being excavated to find faults, with FTTC in all adjacent areas, and all those areas now with FTTP availability.

We are the back of the queue, truly the premises passed, totally passed & ignored.

Fibre remains a very, very, very distant prospect.

And yet home chargers work.

They do indeed.

I charge my EV at home. Single phase at 7.2 kW. Depending on state of charge of the EV's battery, it takes between 9 and 10 hours. Our EV, a Kia, can also accept three phase - so 1/3 of the time, or DC.

It depends upon what size cable, cut-out and fuse was fitted during the installation of the supply as originally specified. Our house has an 80 amp fuse (the cut-out is rated at 100 amp should the supply cable be deemed adequate. It is part PILC and part split-con.)

Street lamp posts would not normally be supplied with cable, cut-out and fuse for high current.

Cheers!

Street lamppost chargers work, so I would imagine that repurposing cabinets wouldn’t be a problem.

https://greenwichlamppostchargingphase2.commonplace....

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

And yet home chargers work.

For those that can get close to their wall. In the papers last month was reported around 50% of the UK has no regular place to park, so those people can't invest in their own charger. This includes those whom park on the side of a road where they live in a terrace, can easily move up and down the road every time by as much as 10 or 15 car lengths.

One person wrote in that they have a house with sufficient electricity supply and they park on hard standing next to the house, but its not part of the same property. The car is essentially right next to the exterior wall of the home. The DNO (District Network Operator) has refused them a home charger as the hard standing is not part of the home property.

If BT can use old cabinets (I assume FTTC cabinets, as the PCPs aren't powered) to help in the transition it will be useful, but probably not make much of a difference in the big scale. What is needed is some way that public chargers (e.g. at Filling Stations) are not 70% more expensive than charging at home, for the large number of people whom will never have a home charger. Right now if you always use public charging you pay much more than petrol

Here’s a link from a similar thread elsewhere, and as you can see. No trailing lead from the cab.
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/bt-to-con...

What is needed is some way that public chargers (e.g. at Filling Stations) are not 70% more expensive than charging at home, for the large number of people whom will never have a home charger. Right now if you always use public charging you pay much more than petrol

Well said, I heartily agree.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

If BT can use old cabinets (I assume FTTC cabinets, as the PCPs aren't powered) to help in the transition it will be useful, but probably not make much of a difference in the big scale. What is needed is some way that public chargers (e.g. at Filling Stations) are not 70% more expensive than charging at home, for the large number of people whom will never have a home charger. Right now if you always use public charging you pay much more than petrol

Unless you buy petrol at Motorway service stations! I wonder what premium they are putting on charging charges?