Plugged In

TWO ORGANISATIONS WORKING TOGETHER TO DELIVER THE LATEST IN ELECTRIC VEHICLE INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS

As GE’s main channel to market for their  EV charging solutions in the UK and Europe, CPS provide a committed resource, nimble in its approach to the development of unique customer requirements, yet unswerving in delivering on time and providing excellent  customer service to organisations which are often new to this technology themselves.

CPS offer a complete national and pan European GPRS networked installation solution to clients, with the reliability of the GE hardware combined with the CPS back-office software, written to ensure full functionality and inter-system flexibility for client integration, with system monitoring, control and billing to meet specific customer requirements.  Its team is led by Alex Bamberg, Managing Director, and Technical Director, Geoff Chapman.  Alex has over fifteen years’ experience in the alternative fuel sector, from electric vehicle technology, energy storage and fuel technology, Geoff has overseen major software projects at Reuters and global broking firm Tullet Prebon, where, as CIO, he was responsible for the technology used for broking tens of thousands of financial transactions per day.

The CPS team’s combined; immense depth of experience has meant that since its formation in 2010, CPS has already led two landmark projects in the UK.  With one of their energy partners, Ecotricity, they installed the first phase of a national network of electric vehicle charging points across the UK’s motorway network, recently upgraded to GE’s latest EV charging technology, ready to power the next generation of electric vehicles arriving on the market.

Charles Elazar, marketing director of GE’s Industrial Solutions business in Europe, says, “GE is launching a family of electric vehicle charging systems in Europe offering domestic and commercial users a range of easy to use, flexible systems to help make electric vehicles a practical, everyday reality. It is visionary organizations such as CPS that will deliver that reality on the ground.”

In 2012, CPS installed over 120 GE DuraStation charge points in time for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games to support the fleet of Olympic vehicles used to transport athletes and officials during the Games.  Together with energy partner EDF and vehicle sponsor BMW, CPS and GE carried out the largest series of rigorous electric car charging cluster tests ever executed.  Up to thirty vehicles were charged simultaneously at the charge points at each of the Olympic venues, while measurements were made of the harmonic distortion caused at the local power supply.  Results were all well within acceptable limits, giving valuable feedback for future projects.

Since installation, these DuraStations have now been used to conduct over 3,000 successful charging sessions, confirming the outstanding reliability of the product.  Following the completion of the Paralympic Games, the units have been integrated into the existing Source London network of charge points and are now being used by the general public on a daily basis for charging the growing number of everyday commuter, commercial and leisure electric vehicles on the UK’s roads today.

Richard Little, Chairman, ChargePoint Services Ltd, said. “CPS has the vision and energy to drive forward unique and challenging projects in the plug-in infrastructure market, and alongside GE, the company is committed to investing long-term to achieve market prominence across Europe.  We have already proved our ability to bring together diverse organisations from across sectors – energy suppliers, vehicle manufacturers, service providers and infrastructure operators, to form a best-of-breed, sustainable solution, at the forefront of electric vehicle charging technology for today’s fast moving and constantly changing market.”

CPS and GE continue to develop their relationship as well as expand their product solutions with new innovative technologies for the plug in vehicle industry.  The launch in September of the GE WattStation wall mounted unit, with its modern, smart design, gives CPS additional scope to provide applications for specific market areas including fleet, office, home, and shopping centre applications.  For the fleet customer, it provides security access and flex charging to control current when multiple vehicles require charge simultaneously, this together with CPS’s back office software providing system monitoring, and control, together with a variety of billing options including PAYG, results in a complete solution for organisations running a fleet of electric vehicles, to operate and monitor on a daily basis.
Demand for home charging is also rising fast,  consumers want a “plug & play”, stylish unit for use in the home, the WattStation, easy to install and with a smart phone app to monitor energy usage already available,  meets these needs head on, providing a modern, reliable facility for drivers to charge their electric vehicle safely at home.

The GE & CPS relationship has brought together two organisations that work together seamlessly to provide futuristic solutions today, their determination and technological enterprise is propelling them to continually develop exciting and revolutionary product solutions for the EV industry.