COMMENT: Learning from the French fuel crisis

Thousands of Brits making their way across the Channel were greeted by chaos recently at half-term. Strike action taken by French refineries saw fuel supplies tightened and forecourts across the nation facing shortages – around a third of petrol stations were completely out of supplies.

The UK Foreign Office issued a warning to those planning on travelling to France to go there with a full tank of fuel – but should the government be doing more to heed its own warning, given what could unfold here as we face supply shortages, rising energy costs and a National Grid stretched to capacity.

France has the third largest EV charging infrastructure network in the EU and still roads ground to a halt. The nation has over 37,000 chargers – only slightly more than the 35,000 chargers in the UK currently. Both Britain and France are building an extensive charging network that will support the uptake of EVs across the country, but it’s clear that this level of investment is still not enough to drive a wider transition or significantly reduce consumer reliance on fossil fuels.

Against the backdrop of rising energy prices and the war in Ukraine making our reliance on oil all the more precarious, we should use France’s predicament as a warning sign to act now. The government has set out a sustainability plan that will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and a 20-fold increase in EVs is predicted over the next seven years in the UK – we must ensure we have a charging network that supports this significant EV uptake.

Forecourt operators need to be looking at their portfolio strategically for the long-term and planning in such a way to make the most of assets and the available land. Done in the right way, not only does installing chargers aid more sustainable travel and help mitigate the impacts of fuel crises, but EV infrastructure can generate significant revenue for asset owners, helping to plug the profit gap as fuel spending drops.

And while government policies have focused on encouraging the installation of more chargers across the country, this is only one part of the solution.

The bigger issue hampering the widespread adoption, which we need to solve first is how the National Grid is going to deal with a significant uptake of EVs. The National Grid has constant struggles with surges in demand as it is and it will only increase as more chargers are installed. Access to power is an increasingly rare commodity that is creating a challenge across all industries and asset owners should be seeking advice now about how they can manage the power and connection to the Grid across their sites. The pressure on the National Grid means that asset owners cannot rely on securing the grid connections needed and for a fuel retailer of a reasonable-sized forecourt, bringing new power to the site can often be a costly and programme-limiting affair. For example, the cost of installing EV charging points can vary widely, typically ranging from £50,000 per MW up to £2m per MW, depending on the type and number of chargers, as well as the connection to the electricity grid.

Astronomical budgets and programmes running into many years are becoming the norm, with utility supplies often causing significant constraints and delays to retailers. Modelling tools and data analytics can provide a critical grain of detail and specificity, including the distribution of vehicle charge speeds in a certain location, that allows predictions to be made on the power draw on the local grid. Asset owners need the right data to allow them to understand whether smart energy solutions on their site can reduce reliance on the local power network – and therefore, decrease the costs and timescales involved. As a service, power procurement is an increasingly significant option as power availability is scarce as further demands from new housing to infrastructure are put on the Grid. For example, some developments in the Thames Valley are experiencing a grid connection wait of eight years – showing how critical it is to consider power requirements right from the start.

But it isn’t all bad news – we have the power technology available that means chargers don’t necessarily need to be connected to the National Grid. With ever-evolving wind and solar technology and battery storage schemes available, peaks in surplus supply can be easily managed. Land assets offer an opportunity to access cheaper, cleaner and more reliable – alongside the additional opportunity of an income generating tradeable asset. Smart energy solutions and storage technologies can create power connections to a site with zero cost to the asset owner. For example, battery technology and storage can be co-located and used to help match demand and omit distribution losses from lower power lines.

The options available mean that with the right advice, forecourt operators have the chance to use their expansive assets to generate an additional income stream. By optimising the best mix of renewable technologies alongside energy storage solutions, asset owners have the option of storing energy to sell back to the National Grid at peak times and drawing from the Grid when the unit costs are low to make money along the way.

Given the current political turmoil occurring on our side of the Channel, the recent instabilities of our government poses threats to the success of a data-driven energy infrastructure network. While the unveiling of Boris Johnson’s Energy Security Strategy seems like a lifetime ago, with the country on its third Prime Minister of the year, it is vital that Sunak’s government drives a focused and sustainable energy programme that will best prepare us for a low carbon transport network as the UK continues its path to next zero.