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[Bowdon]

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/01/virgin-media-uk-harness-broadband-cabinets-for-ev-car-charging.html

The parent company to cable ISP Virgin Media, Liberty Global, is planning to test a new concept in the United Kingdom that would harness their existing cable ducts and broadband street cabinets in order to deploy charging points on residential streets for electric cars (EVs).

Naturally the c.40,000 street cabinet used by Virgin Media’s cable broadband and TV network already have their own power supplies, which with some extra expense could be upgraded to support a new network of charging points for electric cars. Deutsche Telekom has done something similar in Germany with 12,000 of their own cabinets.

The fact that such cabinets would also have a data link could be another bonus, particularly with EVs generating ever more data about how they’re being used. According to the FT (paywall), Virgin Media has already received some public funding for the project from the Government’s Innovate UK programme (part of a plan to help reduce car emissions).

At first the new setup is due to be tested at only around six sites by Easter 2019, with the first trial starting this week in Southwark (supported by start-up Connected Kerb). Going forward it’s also anticipated that Streetplug and JuiceNet may become involved, although this is still subject to negotiation and possibly the outcome of Virgin’s trials.

[niemand]

Emphasis on 'cabinets'. This is not going to be using the power feed VM pay for.

[Starman]

I'm unsure on that Carl - I have direct experience with the power supplies in those cabinets which are at least locally typically a 35mm service which would be capable of upto 100A and as the cabinet existing demands are on the lower end of this there is spare capacity on the DNO service.

Although I'm unsure if the cost associated with the extra internal wiring and the SWA spur to a standalone cabinet for on street charging is overly cost effective.

[niemand]

Understood. The thing I'm mindful of is that that single power feed isn't powering a single cabinet in the hybrid areas, it's powering a whole bunch of them. That feed goes onto a power injector which then fires power down coax to the rest of the cabinets in the cascade. That cabinet also has a UPS and battery backup to keep the MSAN sitting next to it alive in case of loss of mains power.

The FTTP areas, though, have a power cabinet which has the UPS, etc, and feeds the OLT in the cabinet neighbouring it. I'm not sure how much juice those OLTs draw.

I happily defer to your knowledge on this one, though.

[gt94sss2]

Interesting - down here the local council is installing EV car charging into their lamposts instead

http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/article/14911/work_begins_installing_another_250_electric_vehicle_chargers_in_lamp-posts

[Ronski]

I thought the idea of using lamp posts was a moot one as they couldn't handle the power, but clearly they are doing it. I wonder just how many cars would need to be plugged in before something went pop.

Also those cables in the picture are between £200 and £400 and there appears to be nothing stopping someone stealing them, that could get rather expensive.

ETA. It appears the cables are locked when charging is commenced and only unlocked from within the car. http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/reports/ORCS%20Case%20Study%20Webinar%20Q%20and%20A.pdf

[Starman]

I thought the idea of using lamp posts was a moot one as they couldn't handle the power, but clearly they are doing it. I wonder just how many cars would need to be plugged in before something went pop.

Typically street light supplies are unmetered and fused at maxium of 25A - the service supply can also connect between many other columns in more rural areas. I know from experance fault finding on these services can be a nightmare as they generally not historically on drawing.

Also more recent smaller free standing public charging points I've dealt with are 100A 3 phase with an SWA looping to the individual charging points.