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The acting director for roads development in National Highways has explained how a new initiative to add storage capacity to enable more rapid EV charging at service stations is all about supporting range anxiety and making sure that the network’s users have got regular intervals at which they can actually charge their vehicles.

Dr Joanna White was discussing the government-owned organisation plans to invest in Energy Storage Systems – essentially giant battery packs – for service stations where the grid supply is not enough for rapid charging infrastructure.

“It’s a really interesting project that we’re leading, working with the Office for zero emission vehicles to look at how we can support motorway service areas with the their capacity to enable delivery of at least six rapid charging electric vehicle charging points by 2023,” she explains. “So we’re working with those have to focus on those service areas, which have got lower grid capacity grid connection… or have got lower footfall, and where we can install a battery type solution to charge up overnight or in low periods of demand and enhance the capacity connection that that motorway service area has.”

The wide-ranging discussion covers initiatives to decarbonise freight, standards in low carbon transport, liaising with local authorities and then National Highways’ own decarbonisation efforts.

“We are looking at our own corporate carbon, we’re looking at where we get our energy from that that runs our offices, runs the lighting in our offices,” she says. “We’re looking at converting the lighting on the network to LED lighting and obviously reducing emissions to that we’ve invested in plug in hybrid electric vehicles for our traffic officer service.”

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