North East England began a large-scale deployment of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in 2009.

The region’s existing charging infrastructure network has continued to develop, with operational and maintenance responsibilities lying with different local authorities.

To improve the consistency of infrastructure, and harmonise user experience across the region, the North East Combined Authority is planning to procure a single Contractor to upgrade, repair, maintain and operate all existing infrastructure.

To underpin this procurement, Urban Foresight were commissioned by NECA to undertake an audit of the region’s charging infrastructure and identify a definitive list of charge points, their characteristics and owners. This involved:

• Review of charge point data sources;
• Usage analysis of 18-months of historic data
• Identification and development of an initial long list of existing charge points within the NECA region
• Review of long list with each local authority’s officers
• Site visits and series of functional tests recorded for each identified charge point
• Development of dashboards for each local authority and a report highlighting key findings

Following the audit Urban Foresight also produced a Technical Specification for the proposed procurement exercise, which specified the technical standards, contract management, and upgrading, operating and maintenance requirements private sector operators need to comply to. This involved close working relationships with all of the Local Authority officers to ensure that their needs were reflected in the single procurement document and therefore that all areas could sign up to NECA’s proposal. Urban Foresight also supported NECA in presenting these proposals to the local Heads of Transport meeting to gain approval to proceed.