the number of smart chargepoints increases, it will be essential to stagger the response of chargepoints in order to maintain grid stability, including when recovering from power outages. As EV uptake increases, the default randomised delay time may need to be extended to longer than 10 minutes, so as to increase the period of time over which chargepoints come back on to the system and therefore further mitigate grid stability risks. Government will keep this requirement under review, and Phase Two as described in Chapter 3 will consider additional requirements to ensure grid stability.
Minimum charging current or power In the consultation, Government proposed a requirement that chargepoints should not reduce the rate of charge below a minimum amount of current or power when connected to the vehicle. This was to address reported issues that some EVs switch off before the vehicle has finished charging if the charging rate is slow. Respondents had mixed views on this proposal, although it should be noted that those who agreed with the proposal provided minimal evidence to support this being a common issue amongst EV chargepoints. Some respondents thought that this issue was caused by a communication issue between the EV and chargepoint.
While limited evidence of this issue was provided in response to the consultation, Government is aware of some potential issues related to vehicle-to-chargepoint communication. Given this issue potentially relates to both EVs and chargepoints, we propose not to introduce this functionality as part of these smart chargepoint regulations. Government will continue to monitor this issue and assess whether a future intervention is required. Default off-peak charging mode In the consultation, Government proposed mandating a default setting for smart charging. The default off-peak mode would delay charging until a specified off-peak time.
The consultation also proposed an alternative approach, where the default mode would instead reduce the rate of charging during peak times. Many respondents supported the inclusion of a default setting, with the default off-peak mode being the preferred approach. Many respondents also raised concerns about defining a specific off-peak time period in legislation, suggesting it could result in a secondary peak in demand. Based on feedback, we will adopt a more nuanced approach. The Government will mandate that smart chargepoints must prompt users to input a charging schedule during first use.
In addition, smart chargepoints must be pre-set to offer users a charging schedule that by default prevents EVs from charging at peak times. During first use, the user must be given the opportunity to edit or remove this setting. The user must also be able to remove or edit this default setting at a later date. Peak times will be defined in legislation as 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm on weekdays. This time window is consistent both with our internal projections of expected EV demand, and with various external studies of EV charging patterns. It has been chosen as a peak time window common to both workplace and domestic charging settings, both of which are within the scope of this legislation.
The legislation will allow chargepoint sellers to adopt an alternative approach if a chargepoint is sold 17