In a wide-ranging report on the roll-out of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the NSW lower house standing committee on Transport and Infrastructure has made a number of recommendations focusing on reliability, red tap, signage and apartment buildings, among others.
The main message coming through from the report is that government policy and targeted support are key planks for ensuring a smooth and equitable path to the full electrification of the passenger and transport fleets.
As such, the committee (made up of three Labor members, one Liberal and one Teal Independent) came up with 18 recommendations to implement, revolving around five main topics.
- Apartments: a need to implement policies and guidelines to mandate and support the installation of EVCI in new and existing apartment and public housing buildings.
- Public EV chargers: a need for technical support to appropriately locate and signpost chargers, including financial incentives – especially in rural and regional areas where co-locating chargers at petrol stations and truck stops should be prioritised.
- Red tape: the costs and timelines that Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSPs) apply to new EV charger connection need to be standardised, as well as the need for regular reporting from DNSPs on these fees, processes, and timeframes to ensure transparency.
- Public charger reliability and transparency: mandates for minimum uptime and transparent pricing at EV chargers need to be implemented to provide confidence in the infrastructure by the public.
- Workforce training: to address a shortage of technicians (especially in the regions), EV charger and EV installation and maintenance upskilling needs support in the general electrical and mechanical trades areas, with formal pathways for this upskilling needing to be put in place.
Interestingly, many of these are in development elsewhere in Australia (or are in the early stages of implementation) already, whilst most have been in place for years overseas.
For instance, the ACT Government in 2021 commissioned a report into ‘EV Ready Developments’ that applies to new and existing apartments and the NSW government even trialled a grants scheme for implementing early adopter apartment charger solutions. More recently, a NSW standard for public signage of EV chargers was released.
The same applies for the other three topics. The UK quite some time ago implemented regulations around charger uptime and pricing transparency that we could easily adapt for use here. Education and training for EV related workers is also underway.
The Driven has, for instance, reported on a TAFE accredited course for electricians on EV charger installations. There are even full electric vehicle mechanic qualifications, plus smaller skill-sets of training units for existing mechanics.
(Mind-you, in my discussions with the TAFEs registered to teach these qualifications and skill sets, it turns out running them is limited by a severe shortage of EV experienced and qualified TAFE instructors).
Calls for DNSPs to provide standardised approaches to new EV charger connections have been going on for almost as long as higher power EV chargers have been around.
In my experience, it is a regularly cited reason for delays to otherwise completed EV charger sites, as well as one of the reasons many potential EV charger sites are given up on due to the timelines provided and/or inability to get firm power connection estimates.
However, it is good to see a drawing together of all these aspects into a single document and set of related recommendations. Hopefully, we will not see the report gather dust, given the accelerated need for action in the light of the recent exponential increases in Australia’s electric vehicle uptake.
Given the NSW Government’s record of giving sizeable grants and support for EVs and charging, it does auger well for seeing see outcomes arising from this report sooner rather than later.
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