Top 50 Indie JP&S Services is embarking on a £1m-plus refresh of its filling station in Godalming, Surrey, with the project involving a three-tonne battery being installed in a dedicated underground substation to facilitate EV charging, and piles being driven deep into the ground to support the site’s new shop.
The Jet-liveried Ockford Road forecourt will be the first filling station in JP&S’ 15-site portfolio to host EV charging, but with consumer tastes running to ultra-rapid electricity delivery, the local grid’s 75kW capacity wasn’t going to cut it.
JP&S’ operations director, Vas Mohanathas, explains that while the firm wanted to put in a conventional charging station, “a lack of flexibility in the local grid” meant an unconventional solution was required. This comprises a lithium-ion Multi Power Unit from Japanese firm Nidec, which stands just over 2m tall, spans 3.5m across and weighs in at a hefty 3,100kg.
That chunky power unit will be located in a dedicated underground substation that will sit beneath the forecourt, providing the ultra-rapid charging speeds demanded by the modern EV driver.
“The batteries will take electricity at 75kW, store it, and then when someone plugs in they can deliver up to 300kW,” Mohanathas explains, adding: “Jet came up with this solution, and we were happy to go with it”. The Phillips 66-owned firm is covering the cost of the charger, battery and connections, paying JP&S ground rent for the land on which the charger sits, and collecting charging revenue in return.
The battery isn’t the only thing being buried underground: one side of the Ockford Road forecourt gives way to a steep drop in the land, and the firm is having to sink piles deep into the ground and build a retaining wall that will border the forecourt and its new 3,000sq ft shop. Engineers initially thought the piles would have to be sunk five metres, and while subsequent reports indicate JP&S may not need to go down quite that far, the piles still represent a significant engineering undertaking.
Further complications were added by the site sitting in a conservation area. “There were quite a few conditions we had to meet to satisfy that,” Mohanathas says, with one being the inclusion of a sedum roof for the shop, and another seeing the retaining wall being made ‘living’ by covering it in plants.
These expensive details have a sound business case behind them, naturally: the original site shop was just 800sq ft, and with drivers dispensing around 6mlpa at Ockford Road, coupled with a relative paucity of nearby retail outlets, it made sense to construct a new facility big enough to cater for their needs – not least given Godalming’s affluent nature, and the number of new housing developments being built in the area.
Fortunately the forecourt itself is being left largely as is, Mohanathas explains: ”We installed a new forecourt in 2016, relining tanks and putting in new pumps, so we don’t need to touch the forecourt itself.”
Food to go undoubtedly features large in JP&S’ plans for the shop, which will have a dedicated seating area with space for six FTG units. The firm is fairly confident Country Choice and Rollover will feature inside, but with construction scheduled to be ongoing until early summer, there’s still plenty of time to decide on other details.
And time has been the name of the game for this project: planning was applied for in February 2023, but as well as conservation area considerations, a series of requests from the local authority’s environment agency saw multiple boreholes dug and reports written before the project was fully signed off by the council. Ground was finally broken in October 2025 though, and the revamped Ockford Road forecourt is scheduled to be complete by early summer.
