Energy data used for Oxfordshire charge point roll-out

Energy data and software company Advanced Infrastructure is supporting Local Energy Oxfordshire (Project LEO) by finding sites suitable for public EV charge points.

Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire), a £40m Smart Local Energy System Demonstrator project, comprises a range of trials across Oxfordshire to build a broad range of reliable evidence of the technological, market and social conditions needed for greener, flexible electricity – including the use of enhanced mapping tools.

Following a public tender process in November 2021, Advanced Infrastructure was appointed by Project LEO partner Oxfordshire County Council, to provide an energy mapping tool for the project, utilising and building upon it’s Local Area Energy Planner Plus (LAEP+) software service and the council’s work to collate and integrate a wide range of relevant spatial data.

The LEO-LAEP+ map visualises a baseline of the current Oxfordshire energy system and opportunities to decarbonise. This includes gas network data, electricity network capacity, Distribution Future Energy Scenarios as well as data provided for the project by Energeo Ltd and the Energy Systems Catapult.

Through a collaboration with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) and Project RESOP, the LEO-LAEP+ map will also have access to granular LV energy network data to help identify, manage and mitigate the impact of new connections and developments on network constraints.

The second phase of the project involved working with Oxfordshire County Council and climate action and planning officers across the Oxfordshire local authorities to trial the platform and the data. The final phase of the project looks towards potential decarbonisation pathways by supporting users to model the impact of planned connections on carbon, cost and electricity network constraints.

Krista Middleton, Sustainable City Projects, Oxford City Council, said of the project: “The LEO mapping tool has been a strong asset to our EV team. The existing layers provided within the software allowed us to assess and shortlist potential CP sites based on a number of factors including network capacity, availability of off-street parking and proximity to existing charge points.

“This is an invaluable step saving time and resources in the implementation process. On top of this, we’ve added in our own data layers. This has provided geographical insights to our charge point utilisation that was previously unavailable. Through this we can see areas of high and low charge point utilisation.”

Inga Doherty, Energy Insights Lead, Oxfordshire County Council, said: “Feedback from colleagues across the Oxfordshire local authorities has been hugely positive – simply having a single point of access to the range of data being made available is in itself really valuable but combining that with the filtering and analytical features available on the LEO-LAEP+ platform takes us many steps further down the line to understanding and being able to plan for the changes we know we need to make as we transition to a net zero energy system across Oxfordshire.”

Image courtesy of Advanced Infrastructure

Sign up for our essential
newsletter service.

Enter your details here.