York Council still can’t charge its EV fleet at Hazel Court depot

More information has been published by the York Council on its problems with recharging its electric vehicle fleet.

Significant numbers of the authorites vans are still being recharged at public charging points. A response to a Freedom of Information request has revealed the scale of the problems

The response says that 25 of the Councils 92 vehicles, which work on housing related activities (mainly repairs), are electric.

405 hours were spent parked at public chargers during the last 3 month period for which data is available.

So each vehicle was spending about an hour and 20 minutes at public chargers each week.

The vans have a range fo about 200 miles on a charge. They cover a relatively small geographic area. .

Some workers garage their vans at home and go straight to their first job each day.

Despite the time being lost at charging points, the authority points to “improving speed in completing housing repairs – 88% of repairs completed as right first time“

Electric vehicles are also used by other Council departments.

As far as progress in installing chargers at the Councils Hazel Court depot is concerned, no further update has been provided since December.

At that time the Council simply said that work at Hazel Court was still “ongoing”

The work has actually been going on for several years.

The intention had been that the Councils fleet would charge overnight at the depot leaving the public chargers, which were very expensive to install, to be used on satisfy commercial demands.

Earlier: 3rd December 2023

In July we reported ongoing problems with recharging arrangements for the Councils fleet of electric vehicles.

The vehicles had been parked up for several months as the electricity connection to the charger facilities at the Hazel Court depot remained elusive.

We said then

The authority was criticised 2 years ago for ordering EVs without making arrangements for them to be recharged.

Some of the new vehicles had to be laid up.

Work to install dedicated terminals at its Hazel Court facility were delayed. In the spring the Council announced that the project would be completed and the terminals would be in service from April 2023.

Sources within West Offices have confirmed that this deadline was not met and work to connect a power supply is still ongoing at the Council depot.

The original intention had been to recharge most of the vehicles overnight.

It is unclear how much the delays are costing the Council.

Repeat visits to public recharging points during the day must be having an impact on efficiency.

Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any chance of the Council trucks having to join a queue of customers waiting at the hyperhubs.

It has now emerged that the terminals are still not working and Council staff driving EV vans are still reliant on trips to the “hyperhubs” at Poppleton and Monks Cross.

Staff who are on call can’t charge at home raising further questions about the resiliance of Councils policies.

There have been no reports to any Council committees recently about the delays, the cost overruns or indeed the poor commercial use of the £4 million Hyperhubs.

More gloom for EV owners who live in terraced areas in York

The government has announced an extension of the electric vehicle chargepoint grant to include on-street settings. This funding is available for 1 year, The grant can only be used towards the Chargepoint purchase and installation (up to £350) and is not to be used for cross pavement charging solutions.

The installation of cross-pavement infrastructure is required in advance of an application.

Several cross footpath systems are already on offer

So good news for EV owners living in terraced properties in York?

Well no.

The York Council is set to continue its ban on the provision of cross-path gulleys which could be used to access a domestic charging point.  Home charging costs are a fraction of those imposed at public charging sites.

Instead, it says it will try to ensure that all properties are within a 10-minute walk of a commercial charging station. In a report published today they also talk of a “20-minute stretch target” whatever that may mean.

The report states that York has more than twice the density of chargers/chargepoints as the regional average.

That may be so, but the Council has failed to provide any information on the usage figures for its recharging sites and – although it claims that income from the chargers is retained by the authority – it also refuses to say how much this income is.

Clearly, usage of the hyperhubs at Poppleton and Monks Cross is low. Only visits from the Councils own vans break the solitude. The Council is currently in the second year of an, error prone, project aimed at providing its own chargers at its Foss Islands  Hazel Court depot.

Councillors in York really need to get over this jobsworth attitude and get some practical experience of cross-pavement systems by initiating trials. Cross-footpath (or street light ) systems are really not that difficult. There is a demand. There will need to be compromises (a dedicated parking space outside the supply home?) but it is not impossible.

It looks like York will stay on the sidelines until at least 2025.

The majority of cars are expected to be EVs by 2030.

There simply aren’t enough off-steet chargers or parking spaces available to satisfy that demand.

Poppleton hyperhub is little used

Major question about Harewood Whin solar and wind generation plans

Residents have known for some time about plans to use the former Harewood Whin waste disposal site for energy generation. 

Last week a solar farm on adjacent low grade farmland was given the go ahead by the York Councils planning committee.

Papers have now been published which show that the York Council (which owns the Harewood Whin site with Yorwaste leasing part of it) hopes to provide more than just solar panels on the site.  

Ideas being progress include

• Ground-mounted solar PV
• Onshore wind
• Green hydrogen production and utilisation
• Battery energy storage
• EV charging infrastructure
• Council depot

Details can be read by clicking this link. It would be over 18montsh before a planning application could be submitted

Eyebrows may be raised at the proposals to install wind turbines on the site. Some 10 years ago a similar idea was turned down following complaints that turbines placed on top of the hils would be unduly prominent and would have a major impact on the landscape in the Green Belt.

The other ideas may be less controversial although long term plans to relocate the York Council depot to the site will come as a surprise. The Council says that this would reduce the number of journeys that its refuse wagons  take.

The major concern will be the ability of the York Council to manage what would be a multi-million pound project. There are numerous commercial and technical risks involved and whether taxpayers should underwrite such a plan will be a major question. Early costs are being funded from a government  “zero emissions” grant via the  combined authority.

Major construction costs are estimated to be

• Solar – £17 to £25 million
• On shore wind – £4 to 6 million
• Hydrogen refuelling station – £6 to £7 million

Other Councils which have tried to enter the energy generation market have had their fingers burned.  

It is possibly an area where the private enterprise should bear at least some of the risks.

Another £2 million EV charging hub planned for York

Asham Bar plan going ahead but many unanswered questions remain about the use of existing facilities

Little used hyper hub at Poppleton Bar

The York Council will invest £800,000 in setting up another “Hyper Hub” at the Park and Ride site. It will be the fourth such charging site established in the City , when the city centre hub at Union Terrace is completed.  

The facility will be accessible to all users of electric vehicles under 3.5 tonnes, The Hyper Hub will include 4 x 175kW chargers, 4 x 50 kW chargers and 56 x 7kW charge points. Solar PV panels, mounted on canopies over the chargers, provide up to 100kW renewable electricity, which can be used directly to charge vehicles, or stored in a 500kW battery for later use.

The Council claims that this will drive the uptake of EVs, “which in turn supports the council’s climate change objectives by reducing carbon emissions and improving air quality”.

The council has been awarded a grant of £1,243k from the  “LEVI Pilot Funding for Askham Bar Hyper Hub”

While few doubt that more reliable  EV charging stations are required, the poor use of the existing chargers at Poppleton Bar and Monks Cross needs to be investigated first. Promotional publicity for the facilities is poor and the Council remains tight-lipped about just how effective the solar chargers have been. They admit that no power has been sold to the grid as was originally promised.

Occupation of the charger bays is restricted to 90 minutes, so any commuter hoping to leave their vehicle on a charge while they go to work will be disappointed. The inclusion of 56 x 7 kW terminals may be intended for longer-stay users, but the Council hasn’t admitted that.

All in all, just another stuttering step forward in the confused world of EV charging

Fast chargers at Monks Cross are not being used

Traffic congestion everywhere but EV charging bays mostly empty in York

As we reported earlier in the week, congestion levels have been high during the current half term holiday. This is partly due to over running road works but it is also partly down to the York Council artificially generating longer queues by tinkering with traffic light phasing

Long traffic queues in York this week

The congestion has been a particular challenge for some cyclists and bus passengers today with the approach to Lendal bridge very slow moving.

The Council promised, a long time ago, that real time car park space availability information would be made available again, but this has never happened. Drivers have been forced to search for sometimes none existent spaces.

Technology is now available which would allow information to be sent to car navigation systems, but not it seems in York.

There is currently parking spaces available at some of the park and ride sites.

Not least the fast charging bays at Monks Cross continue to be deserted.

Fast charging bays at Monks Cross still unused 18 months after installation. No direction signage has been provided

The lack of publicity for the Council operated EV charging facilities has been criticised in the past. With roughly 10% of cars visiting the City now electric, there is an opportunity for the Council to earn some badly needed revenue.

Monks Cross Hyperhib

The situation at the adjacent “hyperhub” is little better. Only two vehicles were using the facility today.

Yet Council officials have failed to provide any explanation for the low useage of facilities that cost several millions to install. .

Nor have any reports on the progress being made, in encouraging the move to electric vehicles, been considered by the Councils Executive over the last couple of years.

Plan for another £2 milion EV “hyperhub” charging facility at Askham Bar

Questions remain unaswered on the performance of existing hyperhubs at Monks Cross and Poppleton

York Council taxpayers will be asked to find £669,000 as a contribution towards Askham Bar with the balance of the £1.9 million cost coming from a government grant.

Similar financial contributions were expected from York Taxpayers for the existing hubs and for the new one planned at Union Terrace car park.

There have been concerns about the transparency of the data on the performance of the two existing hubs and how outturns compare to the original business case.

The new report casts little more light on the situation. The report talks of 2900 charging sessions per month in total at both sites combined (8 ultra-fast and 8 Fast chargers) The report somewhat disingenuously describes them as “very well used”. That is 6 visits per charger per day.

The claim stretches the credulity of casual observers with most charger bays unoccupied for most of the day (a full charge on an ultrafast would take around 30 minutes).

Unused fast chargers at Monks Cross

Unused Hyperhub at Poppleton Bar

No one was using the bank of fast chargers at Monks Cross on Sunday while similar chargers – which could in theory be used by park and ride customers while they made their journeys into York – were never fitted at Poppleton Bar.

An overstay penalty applies at the nearby HyperHub thus effectively preventing “charge while you ride” use.

Despite an FOI request last year, in response to which the Council promised that information would be reported to the Executive, the latest report fails to say how much of the power used is being provided by the solar canopies & batteries?. It is likely to be high at this time of year but negligible on occasions during the winter.

This would mean that power was being drawn from the Grid – no doubt at a high cost.

A substantial price increase for use of the Hubs has recently been announced. To ease the burden – and encourage higher use – a differential pricing system could be introduced with discounts available when solar generation is at high levels.

The Council’s auditor should insist that the authority published a transparent revenue account income/expenditure statement for its EV charging network  This would allow taxpayers to calculate how much of their initial expenditure is being recovered. Effectively the EV project needs a separate cost centre analysis in budgets.

Without such transparency taxpayers will susect that relatively wealthy EV owners are being subsidised by the less well off. Its the equivalent of the Council building a petrol station and charging only for the fuel used rather than including the costs of providing the infrastructure as well.

Questions also need be asked about the lack of direction signage at Poppleton Bar which reopened some 6 months ago.

These are matters of general interest to taxpayers which deserve an informed public debate.

Huge increase in electric vehicle charges agreed byYork Council in “behind closed doors” decision

Charges at rapid and ultra-rapid charging sites operated by the York Council will rise from £0.46 to £0.59 per kWh

That is a 28% increase.

Most of the rapid chargers are located at the so-called “hyperhubs” Earlier in the week the one at Poppleton had no vehicles at all charging at, what should have been, the busiest time of the day

Unused Poppleton hyperhub on Monday

The decision to increase charges was taken by a Council official at a “behind closed doors” meeting.

The background papers for the meeting – published on the Councils web site only after the decision had been taken – suggest that 70% of solar energy generated is either used directly for charging or is stored in batteries.

This implies that 30% of the solar energy generated is sold to the National Grid.

The report says that

• “The following factors have not been incorporated into the proposed tariff:
• £10 Overstay penalty charges
• Electricity generated from on-site solar PV
• Exported Electricity
• Grid frequency response revenue”

The report says that the income is needed to meet grid payments, standing charges, annual maintenance costs and back office costs.

The Council’s partner in providing its service is BP Pulse.

We think it is shocking that the Council is not providing full income and expenditure statements to justify these rises.

Far from there being a case for an across-the-board increase, many may feel that, at least a times of high solar generation, differential tariff reductions should be available.

At the very least, the Council should review its marketing policies and ensure that the Poppleton site is properly signposted. They should also revisit their decision not to allow Park and Ride users time to recharge while they make a trip into the City (currently a £10 fine is levied for anyone overstaying)

The Council auditor should investigate just how many vehicles are using the facilities, how much energy is being generated and used, how the debts on installation costs are being financed and what income is being derived from sales to the Grid.

Additional funding secured for electric buses in York

A new dual 150Kw EV charger has been provided at the BP filling station at the junction of the A59/A1237. It is more expensive to use than the nearby – but lightly used -Poppleton Bar hyperhub chargers

The Department for Transport (DfT) has awarded the council an additional £1.8m to increase the scope of the Zero-Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme.

The ZEBRA bid also brings significant investment in York from First Bus, with First pledging to co-fund a further nine electric buses. With these additional vehicles, the First York bus fleet will become fully electric by 2024 – a major step forward in decarbonising the city.

In March last year, City of York Council was awarded an initial £8.4 million in ZEBRA scheme funding, which enabled an order for 44 electric buses from British manufacturer Wrightbus. The local authorities successful in this initial bid were then offered the opportunity to apply for additional support from the DfT. Of those applicants – five local authorities have been successful, including York. 

The funding will also be used to support the electrification of First’s James Street depot, including the installation of charging equipment and removal of the diesel refuelling station.  

This award is in addition to the Bus Service Improvement (BSIP) funding of £17.36m received from the DfT in November 2022.

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New electricity sub station needed for Council EV charging at EcoDepot

The York Council says that it needs to construct a new electricity supply sub station at its Hazel Court Eco Depot before EV vans and lorries can be recharged there.

The proposals have only recently been submitted so it will be towards the end of the year before the system is fully operational.

One Councillor has already criticised the proposed new layout at the depot, citing safety concerns

The costs of the new infrastructure have not been revealed

There was also some criticism last year following claims that the Council had ordered more EV vans and trucks, despite recharging arrangements for them not being readily available.

The lack of use of the Council’s hugely expensive hyperhub system has also come in for continued criticism against a background of a lack of transparency about usage levels and running costs.

Only three vehicles were using the Poppleton Bar hyperhub on Sunday. Still no news on when (or even if) the adjacent park and ride site might reopen

Electric refuse trucks in York proving to be unreliable

Two electric refuse collection trucks introduced by the York Council in January 2021 have proved to be very unreliable according to a Freedom of Information response.

In some recent months both vehicles have spent 90% of their time off the road.

The figures are revealed in a response to local resident Gwen Swinburn who queried why the hugely expensive vehicles were not being seen around the York streets.

The report also confirms that 25 new vehicles, which have been delivered, are in storage.

Our report on 14th December 2022 highlighted the issue which according to a Council comment in The Press revolves around a lack of charging facilities.

Of the 25 vehicles, one was delivered as long ago as May 2022.

The response from the Council also states what its plans are to provide more charging infrastructure for its vehicles.

It says,

• · Hazel Court: 70 Fast charge and 8 rapid chargers, including all associated civils work, switch gear and feeder pillars. Due November 2022. All civils work due to be completed January 2023. Cost to date £872k, Total cost £1.1m
• · Be independent: 8 fast charge – currently under review as some fleet vehicles moving to York Craft Site. Expected Autumn 2023
• · Howe Hill: 2 fast charge. Expected Autumn 2023, Estimated cost £12k
• · Beehive: 2 fast charge. Expected Winter 2023, Estimated cost £11k
• · Archways: 2 fast charge. Expected Winter 2023, Estimated cost £20k
• · Foss Bank: 2 fast charge. Expected Autumn 2023, Estimated cost £16k – On Hold due to NPG/Npower metering fault
• · YorkCraft: 4 fast charge. Price and timescales subject to connection offer from NPG.
• · Hamilton House: 2 fast charge. Quote in progress
• · The Glen: Awaiting site requirements – currently empty.

Ironically the order for new refuse collection vehicles was delayed as some Councillors wanted to go straight to a fully electric fleet. With the ageing diesel fleet beyond its lifetime, had the all-electric policy been adopted then we would now be without a refuse collection service.

NB. The Hyperhub EV charging facility at Poppleton Bar is still lightly used and lacks direction signage