Siemens and Osprey Charging, one of the UK’s leading Charge Point Operators (CPOs), have launched a new collaboration to help fast-track the commissioning of electric vehicle (EV) charging sites across the UK.
The agreement is designed to help meet the significant ongoing demand for public EV charging options as well as address the specific need for new publicly available EV infrastructure across the country.
As part of the collaboration, Siemens will become a preferred supplier of end-end meter operator (MOP) services and commission and install meters at each EV charge point at Osprey Charging Networks’ sites up and down the country. The meters deliver power to the charging units and record electricity usage for accurate billing, reporting and recharging by the CPO.
The agreement will help speed up the delivery of new Osprey Charging sites by providing a dedicated, scalable commissioning service for the CPO. In the past six months, 100 charging stations have been added across the country, from Perthshire to Cornwall. To distribute charge points more evenly around the country, Osprey Charging has added sites in rural locations where charge points are less common with installations in New Forest, Devon and the North Wales coastline to ensure no community is left behind in the transition to EVs.
Ian Johnston, CEO of Osprey Charging, said: “We have an aggressive roll-out plan to more than double the size of our network to over 1,000 chargepoints in 2023, so it is imperative that we are able to act quickly to deliver the EV charging infrastructure required to meet public demand. It’s no small feat from an infrastructure perspective and we are focused on how to support this delivery at pace.
“A key challenge is that the roll out process requires solutions for metering that support commissioning of the charge points. Finding a partner that can offer the scale that will help us meet delivery timelines we’re committing to is a fundamental part of the puzzle. The team at Siemens has an in-depth understanding of the way meter installations are queued as well as the operational processes at our side too. As a result, we have been able to get power into our units, irrespective of their location, in a matter of days while others have had to wait potentially weeks or months.”
Oliver Brown, CPO Metering Lead at Siemens GB&I, said: “The installation of metering and commissioning of sites is a complex process. Traditionally, many organisations would leave energy suppliers to handle this activity, however more CPOs are looking to accelerate this process to match the speed of their rollouts. Since energy suppliers provide metering for a variety of different sectors, it’s not always possible for them to provide the account-level visibility CPOs need, or fixed scheduling and installation dates.
“After more than 20 years of solving these sorts of problems in the industrial and commercial metering space, we recognise the market’s need and have been installing metering across Osprey sites in a way that can help provide confidence in the future of EV infrastructure.”
For industrial and commercial and small-to-medium enterprise B2B metering agent services Siemens provides comprehensive data services, electricity meter financing, installation, maintenance and fault resolution backed up by a sizeable field team. Siemens services and solutions provide suppliers with complete visibility and control over their metering estate to help drive down the cost to serve, speed up issue resolution and enhance end-customer experience.
