Monmouthshire to get 15 new electric vehicle charge points

Fifteen brand new fast electric vehicle charging points will soon be available across Monmouthshire.

Work has begun to install 65 electric vehicle charging points at 34 sites across Gwent, including six sites in Monmouthshire. The council is one of five local authorities in Gwent to have been awarded a share of £459,000 by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) with match funding by all five authorities. The Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales both contributed funding towards a feasibility study to support development of the project.

The installation is being undertaken by a Welsh company called Silverstone Green Energy. This company will also manage and maintain the charge points until 2025.

The six car parks in Monmouthshire set to receive electric vehicle charge points are located at:

• Brewery Yard, Abergavenny
• Trinity Terrace, Abergavenny
• Woodstock Way, Caldicot
• Castle Dell, Chepstow
• Glendower Street, Monmouth
• Maryport Street (South), Usk

The points being installed can charge from 7kW to 22kW depending on the capacity available during the time of charging.  The aim is for all installations to be complete by 31^st March 2020, with the charge points operational from April 1^st 2020.

Sites proposed across Gwent were selected following a Gwent regional electric vehicle charge point feasibility study, which looked at all local authority owned car parks to determine which ones met the OLEV On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme requirements.  Western Power Distribution was also engaged as part of the study to determine suitability of sites and costs to provide the electricity supply.  A public consultation exercise was also carried out to determine current and future demand.

Councillor Jane Pratt, Cabinet Member for Green Infrastructure said: “I am thrilled Monmouthshire will soon be receiving these fast charge points following the successful funding bid. We want to encourage everyone to think about what they can do to help reduce the impact on climate change. Turning to electric vehicles is one way of doing that and the provision of these new charging points go a long way to supporting people who already use electric vehicles.”

The best way to search for charge points is to use Zap Map https://www.zap-map.com/live/ and zoom in to the relevant local authority area.