ZEVI TII EV National Road Grant Scheme – Phase 2

Exiled Rebel

New scheme launched yesterday aimed at the national road network. Surprised to not see any discussion on boards…

Great to see routes both to and in the north west feature so prominently.

There'll be 34 charging points along the routes shown above. a minimum of 300kw must be provided at each location which will not be more than 60km apart.

Towards the south of the island routes from rosslare to tralee and from cork to limerick have been selected. note the towns of wexford, cork, tralee, limerick, sligo, mullingar and letterkenny have been excluded meaning only locations outside these urban areas are eligible.

successful bidders will be announced in april with the locations up and running by the end of 2025.

more info here »»»»» EV Recharging Infrastructure LDV National Road Grant Scheme (tii.ie)

P.S. more national road grant schemes will follow (presumably covering routes in north munster and across parts of the midlands amongst other places).

the_amazing_raisin

Excellent news, this should hopefully go a long way to plugging some of the gaps that still exist in the network

I'm guessing they'll try to target the major crossroads so as to serve multiple routes with a single hub

I'm a bit worried about the 300kW minimum, it could encourage single unit installations which can never really be depended on

75% of €300k doesn't seem like it'll buy a lot of chargers either. You'd ideally want 2-3 HPCs serving two spaces each. Enough that the sites are dependable, and frequent enough that if you run into a big queue you can just carry on to the next hub

Exiled Rebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122738159#Comment_122738159

fear not, a minimum of two chargers must be installed e.g. two 150kW or a different combination to make up 300kW (max of 4 chargers).

Applicants must demonstrate that their proposed EVCI Recharging Pool will provide a power output of at least 300kW of DC High-Powered Chargers

• Applicants must show that they will have a minimum of two (2) and maximum of four (4) Recharging Points capable of operating simultaneously

i'm not sure 300k is too much of an issue tbh but we'll have to wait and see what is delivered to know for sure.

Red Silurian

Why is there an upper limit of 4? That's just silly and opens the path to 3-car ESB "hubs" which would be a mistake

Exiled Rebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122739151#Comment_122739151

Not sure, I haven't had the chance to go through the whole document.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122738509#Comment_122738509

Ah that's good at least, should prevent finding a charger being a lottery

I've no doubt that there won't be an application below €300k, someone's cousin who owns a construction company will be doing well 😏

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122739151#Comment_122739151

I assume to avoid the requirements for planning permission and consequently driving costs over the €300k mark

It also ensures each charging point will supply a minimum of 75kW. Otherwise you could install 100 3kW AC chargers and still be eligible

I agree it's a bit outdated, they could have just said minimum of 2 individual chargers and each charging point must be capable of supplying a minimum of 75kW

Then you could install as many chargers as you could afford

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122741290#Comment_122741290

I think our planning laws need to be updated somewhat also to allow for bigger installations

Also having an upper limit of 4 excludes Ionity who have a 6-minimum policy and any company who wants to install a European style hub with 20+ stalls

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122741895#Comment_122741895

Our planning laws allow larger installations, they just don't allow it under the terms of exempted development. A company planning to deploy 20+ stalls is more than likely going to be making other changes to the site such as changing the layout of the car park which also requires planning permission.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122744075#Comment_122744075

True, however there's probably an opportunity for the planning exemption to be more nuanced

For example you could allow up to 8 chargers if there's a certain number of spaces available to begin with and if the substation works are within certain boundaries

I could understand why the council might be concerned about the local chipper putting 8 chargers and a massive substation out the front (although personally I'd applaud them)

The same logic doesn't really make sense for a supermarket or shopping centre with 100 parking spaces

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122744075#Comment_122744075

At the very least there should be an exemption for any current forecourts, especially ones that wish to change their petrol/diesel pumps to DC chargers. With the upcoming ICE ban and transition away from fossil fuels the planning authorities will be inundated with applications in a few years if we don't plan early

There should definitely be an exemption for petrol stations wishing to swap out their pumps for DC chargers on a 1:1 exchange

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122745735#Comment_122745735

A chipper with 8 parking spaces should be allowed to do this without through the planning process. If people find it "unsightly" custom at the chipper will be reduced naturally

liamog

I'm not sure removing the planning process would make much difference at all to a 1:1 petrol station upgrade. The application will be up an updated drawing and likely rubber stamped by a planning department. The planning process is the one time we get to involve a democratic process in how our local environment is built. It's when we get to have a say in suitable lighting for the site, spacing, accessibility etc… For every time a person complains about the layout of eCars charger on boards.ie or Facebook they'd have been better off submitting an observation to a planning process.

The cost of preparing site drawings and the planning application is paltry compared to the amount the station owner is spending on equipment, I don't think there's enough fuel stations in the country that even if every single one of them submitted a planning application in the same week that it would be enough to overload a single local authority planning department. Looking at my own local authority this week's planning list puts us at planning application 820 for the year.

I don't know if the current 4 physical units exemption is enough, but I'm not sure a blanket exemption is the right idea either.

Exiled Rebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122748004#Comment_122748004

Plonking EV chargers into the same location as petrol pumps is not as straightforward as it seems. There is a significant risk of explosion coming from the fuel tanks buried underneath the forecourt.

Extensive works would need to be undertaken to remove the tanks followed by ground remediation work before chargers could be installed. A very expensive and time consuming process.