27/05/2022  HMS Industrial Networks AB

As the UK’s ban on the sale of new fossil fuel powered vehicles approaches, the days remaining to electrify the road network are rapidly running out. Here Steve Hughes, managing director of power quality specialist REO UK, discusses some potential potholes on the road ahead.

In the UK, the Government will outlaw the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and vans by 2030. For manufacturers, this will be a major milestone in changing the industry and developing more environmentally friendly vehicles.

While electric vehicles (EVs) could speed up a green recovery, the world is still hooked on oil and its derivatives, the usefulness of which is hard to match. This is especially clear in the context of transportation. For instance, a 40-litre tank of petrol contains over 1.3 gigajoules of energy. Creating a vehicle with this battery capacity, with a reasonable weight and cost, has been beyond the reach of EV manufacturers until high energy-density battery chemistries came to the fore in recent years.

When mentioning EVs, people often think of high end Tesla cars and the price tag that comes with them. While it is true that EVs cost more to make, the savings and benefits from EVs outweigh the costs of transitioning to them. From reducing carbon emissions to improving air quality and saving up on fuel, EVs present many advantages. A combination of government policies and market expansion could tip the scales in favour of EVs. However, even as EVs reach parity with traditional vehicles, the infrastructure issues persist.

Arguably one of the biggest challenges for EV owners is the limited amount of charging points. Therefore, the UK Government’s strategies also include incentives for individuals and businesses to facilitate the implementation of more charging points. For example, the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) enables individual buyers of eligible EVs to receive a grant for up to 75 per cent of the total purchase and installation costs of one EV charger for their home.

These incentives are distributed on top of the extra £500 million dedicated to EV charging infrastructure and the new £400 million charging fund. A further £80 million will go to EV charging as part of the Road to Zero strategy’s £290 million budget.

With these developments, the EV market is quickly maturing. To that end, the Institution of Engineering and Technology has streamlined standards for charging port construction. Undoubtedly a great step towards electrifying the road network, but moving such vast amounts of energy around is never going to happen without certain problems creeping in.

While EVs are green and environmentally clean, they’re typically electrically dirty. EV batteries must be charged and discharged with DC power, in contrast to the AC the grid provides. EVs will have the equipment for rectification on board, but even with the most stringent manufacturing parameters, no component is perfect.

Millions of EVs will go onto charge in one day, especially after rush hour. That is millions of separate instances of not-quite perfect rectification processes, all imposing subtle perturbations on the grid.

The solution is to filter these unwanted signals out of the AC signal at the charging point, ideally with a high-quality electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) filter. Filters such as these remove disruptions caused by the rectifier onboard the EV, only allowing the smooth, sinusoidal signal the required back into the grid at large.

REO UK is using its expertise in the e-mobile solutions to create durable and innovative solutions for contributing to a greener automotive industry. The broad range of filters tailored to each need, ensure that we can continue to use EVs in an electrically viable way and speed up the development of EV infrastructure in the UK.

To find out more about REO’s range of e-mobility solutions, head to our website or contact one of our experts.

For more information, please contact: REO (UK) Ltd Units 2-4 Callow Hill Road Craven Arms Business Park Craven Arms Shropshire SY7 8NT Tel: +44 (0)1588 673411 Email: main@reo.co.uk Web: https://www.reo.co.uk

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