Cross-pavement charging solutions are now available to help those without off-street parking access their home electricity supplies to charge their plug-in electric vehicles. Guidance is clearly needed for those in the electrical industry who are asked to get involved with the planning, design and erection of cross-pavement charging installations.
Craig O’Neill, Senior Engineer in the Technical Regulations Team at the IET, and our Managing Director, Graham Kenyon, have written an article Electric vehicle charging design and installation considerations for cable channels embedded within the pavement. The article outlines some of the risks, issues and technical challenges for cross-pavement charging and the use of cable channels embedded in the pavement. The article examines:
- responsibility and liability for safety;
- current-carrying capacity of charging cables in channels embedded in the pavement, including the risks associated with cable overheating due to direct heating by sunlight;
- the importance of simultaneous contact assessment, and guidance to involve the electricity distributor with determining whether adjacent properties and street furniture are connected to the same earthing system according to Regulation 411.3.1.1 of BS7671 Requirements for electrical installations – IET Wiring Regulations 18th Edition;
- the myth that open-PEN detection devices (OPDDs) with integral earth monitoring can provide protection against simultaneous contact risks.
Read the article here: https://electrical.theiet.org/wiring-matters/years/2026/110-july-2026/electric-vehicle-charging-design-and-installation-considerations-for-cable-channels-embedded-within-the-pavement/
The IET is due to publish a fact-file summarising the key ‘take-aways’ from the article.