committed to maximising the uptake of smart charging, in order to benefit the energy system and help reduce the need for new generation capacity and network reinforcement in light of increased demand from EVs. Smart charging will benefit all energy consumers, since reinforcement costs would otherwise be socialised through energy bills. Therefore, making sure that smart charging solutions are simple, good value, and convenient continues to be central to policy design in this area. More broadly, we intend to outline in the upcoming 2021 Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan the range of actions Government is taking to drive consumer uptake of smart charging and encourage innovation.
Government's proposed approach to legislation In the consultation, Government stated that the proposed aims and objectives for smart charging are unlikely to be met without regulatory intervention. To ensure that these objectives are met, a phased approach to legislation was proposed, as outlined below. The majority of respondents agreed with this phased approach. Phase One using the AEV Act powers, mandate that new private chargepoints must be smart, and that smart chargepoints must meet device- level requirements, including for cyber security, interoperability and grid stability.
Phase Two mandate requirements beyond smart chargepoint devices themselves, which instead apply to the entities that can control chargepoints, such as chargepoint operators and electricity aggregators, as well as updating device-level requirements. The requirements on entities go beyond the device only powers of the AEV Act. Government will follow the phased approach to legislation as described in the consultation. Phase One legislation will be finalised and laid in parliament in Autumn 2021 (“the legislation”).
This first phase will mandate that new private chargepoints must be smart, and that smart chargepoints must meet minimum device-level requirements, including for cyber security and grid stability. The Government’s Phase One policy positions and requirements are described in detail in Chapter 2 of this response. Building on feedback received during and following the consultation, this first phase of legislation will contain some changes to the approach initially outlined. Since Government consulted in 2019 the smart charging market has developed significantly, yet it is still in a nascent stage.
Government’s intention is to mandate a minimum set of requirements in 2021 that supports the early smart charging market. We have reassessed the evidence for mandating specific solutions to address Government’s smart charging policy objectives and will not be mandating requirements for all objectives in 2021. The key change from the consultation approach is that, while requirements on supplier interoperability will be introduced, no action on chargepoint operator interoperability will be taken in Phase One. We intend to instead address the interoperability policy objective more comprehensively as part of Phase Two.
This revised approach will help ensure that Phase Two builds on and complements the first phase. It will help mitigate the risk described in the consultation, that industry invests in developing products to meet Phase One requirements, only for those requirements to be changed to align with the future framework developed under Phase Two. 10