Essex County Council wants to turn its ‘park and ride’ sites into energy hubs that will be able to provide services to the electricity grid operator as well as to motorists. It wants to have a model for development and on-site trials.
The overall aim of the project is to help the public sector develop the sites – and potentially other public car parks – as local hubs to address Net Zero and deliver wider local value. The facilities would serve as hubs for power generation with solar PV as the base case.
In time, the council says the facilities could also provide a range of power-related services including electric vehicle charging, power supply offtake to the local area and power network balancing services. It says the changing nature of park and ride facilities will be a key consideration within the project. Different financing and operating models will need to be considered, “taking account of different travel and transport needs for the localities as we transition to zero carbon mobility for individuals, businesses, and communities”. The project scope will therefore include exploration of the role of park and ride facilities as multi-modal transport refuelling centres.
An initial contract will involve design of tecno-economic assessment materials, and helping develop business cases based around a minimum suite of low-zero carbon technologies, financing arrangements and delivery options for developing renewable energy schemes (including renewable energy generation, storage, local use of power and EV charging).
The key outputs of the commission will be:
• A feasibility modelling package designed to help interested public sector organisations assess the feasibility and viability of developing a parking asset into a Net Zero Transport and Travel Hub.
• A minimum of four sites tested across the project partners’ portfolios
• A road map to deploying the package including the anticipated maintenance cost and added value opportunities by collaborating with the project team.
It has to take into account the operational dynamics of the various aspects of use (eg uptake of EV, seasonality of power generation, patterns of car park use) and the use of grid power or onsite/offsite local generation by different parties. It must also consider the local power distribution network status and potential for change, and potential for connection to the grid and local private wires.