Ausgrid says it’s up to charging challenge but Ampol’s rollout of EV stations going slower than expected

Ausgrid says it has the capacity to meet growing demand for EV charging after Ampol reported its rollout of a fast-charging network was making slower progress than hoped.

Australia’s largest power distributor Ausgrid says it has the capacity to meet growing electric vehicle charging demand despite reports grid constraints were slowing progress.

Oil giant Ampol this week reported the rollout of its EV fast-charging network around the country was slower than expected, with difficulties in connecting to the grid.

Announcing Ampol’s financial results on Monday, chief executive Matt Halliday said the company had a pipeline of about 100 EV charging bays either awaiting grid connection or under construction in Australia and New Zealand.

“This provides some window into the challenges of delivering the enabling infrastructure to support the transition,” he said.

Ausgrid head of electric vehicle charging Nick Black said the power company supported the need for more EV charging of all types and “will continue to work with customers to speed up the process”.

“Some of these high-capacity fast chargers require the capacity that is available in our 11,000 volt network,” he said.

“This type of connection requires a customer to install a transformer that drops it to the voltage required for their service.

“The work is equivalent to installing a 14-apartment block on to the network.”

Mr Black said the process included a customer design, and the procurement of the transformer, which could have long lead times.

“It a process that has a high level of engineering design and back and forth between Ausgrid and the customer’s design team,” he said.

Mr Black said Ausgrid had the capacity on its network and was “ready to meet today’s demand while we evolve for the future”.

One of the country’s biggest investors in EV chargers says big oil companies will struggle to roll out their own networks at suburban service stations, but convenience rather than grid constraints were the likely reason.

EV driver Michelle Ryan charges her vehicle at an Evie Networks charging station in Brisbane. Picture: David Clark

Richlister Trevor St Baker, whose Evie Networks is now the biggest EV charging network in the country, said his company was focused on shopping centres targeting taxi, uber, commercial van and other professional drivers who required regular top-ups.

Mr St Baker said shopping centres were better locations for chargers because professional drivers could use the recharging time to have a meal or pick up some shopping.

“We never believed the model of installing chargers at service stations was going to work and expect that these sites will eventually be sold off for redevelopment,” he said.

Mr St Baker said Ampol was not a major player in the EV charging market, with only 92 recharging bays compared to Evie’s 700. He said grid constraints were not slowing the expansion of the company’s network given that most customers wanted to charge during the day when plentiful solar power was available.

“The grid does not drive cars,” he said. “The grid is there to charge batteries and during the day is when the sun is out and there is the most supply. In some cases supplying the necessary power cannot be done overnight and in some locations could never be done. If that is the case in those places we can use batteries to supplement the power supply.”

Chargefox chief executive John Sullivan said that while there may be some delays in rolling out EV charging infrastructure, the rapid expansion of other networks did not indicate a major problem with grid capacity.

Mr Sullivan, whose company supplies software to EV charging networks, said the sector was its early stages of development with only 200,000 electric vehicles in the country compared to 22 million petrol-driven cars. There are about 3000 public charging stations, with Chargefox arguing the infrastructure supporting it is not only keeping pace but improving in reliability and accessibility.

Originally published as Ausgrid says it’s up to charging challenge but Ampol’s rollout of EV stations going slower than expected