The Electric Vehicle recharging network of Source East will go on stream with the formal launch by Baroness Hanham, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Government Spokesperson, Department for Communities and Local Government on July 21, 2011.
EValu8 Power Charging Facility
The Baroness will plug-in the Hethel Engineering Centre in Norfolk to the network. The Electric Vehicle recharging network of Source East is being handled by the University of Hertfordshire owned EValu8-TI Transport Innovations.
Source East has made arrangements to have a range of currently used Electric Vehicles at the time of the launch to display the growing level of the EV market. The company is currently operating with the EV manufacturers in raising public awareness on the advantages of electric vehicles and to organize a local market for such vehicles.
Source East has already established the first of the charging points in Waltham Abbey, Colchester, Peterborough, Norwich and Hethel and is planning to have around 1200 charging points by March 2013 covering fromM1 to Felixstowe and M25 to the North of Norfolk coast. All the charging points will be supervised and maintained from remote locations.
The company is planning to introduce membership arrangements to use Source East’s Ecotricity facilities that use renewable energy sources for the supply of electric power to bring down the level of carbon emissions further. The membership will enable the vehicle drivers to have unlimited charging access at the points. The company is negotiating with Source London to enable members of both the networks to utilize the network of recharging facilities conveniently.
The web-based membership management system of the company has been formulated by POD-Point, a company that produces charging posts. The proposed system will link all the charging points and will provide features such as online membership to the network, single card access at all the charging points, dedicated call center for assistance and interactive map to guide the members to the nearest charging location.
The EV charging positions of Source East are being erected in private and public positions such as local business houses, railway stations, public car park facilities, retail outlets, tourist places, small and medium enterprises and multinational companies. The facility will also be erected in places where the county and city councils show interest to provide such an arrangement. The company has already completed site surveys and chose the positions for the EV charging points in important locations such as London Stansted Airport, Thames Gateway South Essex, Hertfordshire, Peterborough, Norwich, Ipswich, Cambridge, Luton and Bedford.