STEP Trial

STEP stands for Subsurface Technology for Electric Pathways. It is a trial installation of Trojan Energy’s Electric Vehicle charging technology. The trial is funded by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) which is an organisation working across several government departments to support deployment of ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs). The project is delivered through Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – the Government backed national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK.

The trial is aimed at providing on-street charging of electric vehicles for local residents, therefore only residents in the trial areas around the selected streets will be eligible to participate. Click here here to see the recruitment areas for Brent and Camden.

Within the recruitment areas we are looking for three types of participants to take part in the trial (one participant per household):

• Households that already own or regularly use an EV
• Households that intend to own or regularly use an EV before the trial ends in March 2022
• Households that don’t intend to own an EV during the trial period but would like to be kept informed about the trial and have the opportunity to provide their input. These participants need to live on or near the streets where the technology will be installed.

We will then begin to install the network of pavement flush on-street EV chargers in both boroughs, with the equipment going live and the trial beginning in both Camden and Brent in Summer 2021.

The trial is expected to last for 9 months from start the start date.

The electricity tariff is fixed at 25p/kWh for 7 kW charging, or 30p/kWh for 22 kW charging, for the duration of the trial.

We will install 150 charging points across Brent and Camden, London.

Yes, the London Boroughs hosting the trial have approved it and have been involved throughout the development of the technology to ensure that it meets the boroughs’ needs.

This project has been awarded £3m funding from the Office for Low-Emission Vehicles, of which £281k will directly fund the participating borough councils’ involvement in the project. The borough councils’ activities are 100% funded by OZEV and delivered through Innovate UK: the project has no impact on the rest of the council’s budget.

Brent and Camden signed up to the trial because of the demand for on-street charge points in the local area. In both boroughs we have chosen streets based on the location of EV permit holders and where residents have requested charge points from the council. We also ensured that the roads do not have any existing charging infrastructure near-by, and have wide enough pavements for the charging sockets to not be in the way.

Once the trial has been completed successfully, the chargers will remain in place and operational. Users can then choose to continue using the charging technology as Trojan Energy customers.

Although significant issues are not anticipated, there is the option and funding available, to remove the chargers at the end of the trial if necessary.

The trial will inform future decisions about provision of on-street charging for residents across the city and the UK.

For example, it will provide information about:

• installing chargers embedded below pavement level;
• testing the technology of the charger hardware;
• insights regarding the commercial viability of Trojan Energy’s business model;
• the usability of ‘cable and lance’ chargers by residents;
• the pros and cons of a “whole-street” approach;
• the impact on all road users on the street.

The University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies will be conducting research with users and local residents to assess the trial.

We are looking for as many EV drivers as possible to sign up as trial participants across both Brent and Camden, plus additional ‘observers’ who will not use the charge points, but can provide feedback on the Trojan Energy charge points installed in their street. There is no limit on the number of observers that can participate, although we require that observers live on or near to the streets where the technology will be installed, to ensure that they have some experience of the impact the technology has had on the streets near them.

Yes, if you intend to purchase an EV in the near future and want to join the trial while it is running, please sign up now as an ‘Intended EV Owner’.

If you don’t have an EV but intend to own or use one before March 2022 when the trial ends, then you can sign up as an ‘intended EV owner’. Just let us know once you do start to use an EV and we will issue you with a Trojan Energy ‘lance’ to access the system.

If you do not have an EV and do not intend to own or use one during the trial period, but live on or near to one of the streets where the technology will be installed and want to be kept up to date with what is happening in the trial, please sign up to be an ‘observer’ participant.

Trojan Energy will be hosting training sessions on the technology with trial participants and the local borough. This will involve:

• Live demonstrations of the technology
• Information on the charge point data collection
• Q&A session
• Instructions for how to report any issues with the charge point and lance

Please contact the Trojan Energy trial team at support@trojanenergyltd.com

There will be no change to parking permits and restrictions during the trial. Most of the trial areas follow the Councils’ Controlled Parking Zones, and so anyone with a parking permit for those zones will be able to park in the bays.

No, parking spaces are not exclusively for electric vehicles. Both electric and petrol or diesel fuelled vehicles are able to use the same spaces.

No, during the trial, use of the chargers is only enabled for trial participants, and applications will only be considered from local residents who can park on the selected streets. If you want to take part in the trial in order to use the trial charge points, then please sign up when registration opens.

For other EV owners that are not part of the trial, other public charge points are available in the trial area, and these can be seen on live maps, e.g. on Zap-Map here.

Yes, Trojan believe there are many streets across London and the UK facing the challenge of needing convenient on-street charging: this is one of the reasons that this project is important. This is an initial trial that will inform a much wider roll-out of charging solutions and ensure that they are able to work with other streets that need this technology down the line.