Policy paper

Alternative fuels infrastructure regulations (AFIR) report 2023

Published 31 May 2023

The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations (AFIR) 2017 gave the government power to support the provision of alternative fuels infrastructure across the UK.

This report describes how the AFIR have been implemented to support their policy objectives.

Executive summary

The UK is firmly at the forefront of the electric vehicle (EV) revolution. Our commitments to the transition to zero emission vehicles and vessels will help us to reach our net zero targets, improve air quality in our towns and cities, and improve our domestic energy security by removing our reliance on imported fossil fuels.

In 2019, the government committed the UK to meet net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to ensure the UK ends its contribution to climate change. Transport is the largest sector for UK greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for 26% of UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2021.

Cars and vans alone represent 18% of all domestic emissions. The transition to zero emission vehicles is therefore vital to realising our net zero ambitions. The accelerated rollout of public chargepoints in the UK means that there are now over 42,250 public chargepoints and over 7,800 rapid chargepoints installed. This is a 35% increase in public chargepoint provision from May 2022.

Government is supporting the further acceleration in rollout through the Local EV Infrastructure Fund (LEVI) and the Rapid Charging Fund (RCF). The Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund will provide funding to support local authorities to transform the availability of charging infrastructure for drivers without off-street parking. RCF will future-proof electrical capacity at strategic locations to prepare the network for a fully electric car and van fleet.

Government is also considering options for introducing a unified consent process for installing EV charge points, including consideration of a streamlined process for obtaining both the planning permission consent and the highways consent for the traffic management works at the same time. A consultation was held in 2022, and the government’s response will be published later in 2023.

The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017 (AFIR) ensure that the infrastructure to provide alternative fuels for transport such as electricity and hydrogen is consistent and meets the same technical standard and design requirements. High levels of interoperability ensure that the confidence of both consumers and industry is boosted and supports transport decarbonisation.

The AFIR supports the uptake and use of alternative fuel infrastructure for both road vehicles and maritime vessels, setting technical specifications and consumer experience standards to ensure:

• minimum levels of access and information for consumers
• shore-side electricity supply installations meet a technical specification standard
• an improved consumer experience

This will help to help facilitate a faster and consistent transition to cleaner transport.

This report, alongside the post-implementation review, sets out the work undertaken, in the first review period, pursuant to regulation 20 of the AFIR considering each provision within the Regulations, enforcement work and next steps relating to alternative fuels infrastructure.

Introduction

The UK has been at the forefront of supporting the provision of alternative fuels infrastructure. Our vision is to ensure that alternative fuels infrastructure is consistent and easy to access to support the uptake of clean transport.

The AFIR has 4 main policy sections.

Standards for charging and refuelling points and hydrogen supply in road transport

Establish technical specifications for charging and refuelling points which the infrastructure operator must meet. These technical specifications refer to normal power charging points, high power charging points and refuelling points supplying hydrogen. These are the minimum standards for charging and refuelling points; infrastructure operators are free to go beyond this.

Shore-side electricity for seagoing ships

Ensure that the installation, design and testing of shore-side electricity supply for seagoing ships complies with the technical specifications.

Charging points: intelligent metering and ad-hoc access

Require infrastructure operators to provide ad-hoc access to charging points. This ensures public access without the need for a pre-existing membership or contract with an infrastructure operator or electricity supplier. This regulation also requires the infrastructure operator to install intelligent metering systems at all public chargepoints.

Data accessibility

Open data by mandating that infrastructure operators make openly accessible to the public, data which is available to the infrastructure operator about the geographic location of charging points.

Work undertaken by the department

This report will cover work undertaken relevant to provisions of the AFIR. The following sections will outline the provisions, the enforcement work undertaken and next steps.

Standards for charging and refuelling points and hydrogen supply in road transport

EV chargepoints

Policy and enforcement

The regulations require that AC normal and high-power charging points for electric vehicles must have Type 2 connectors. DC high power charging points must be fitted with a combined charging system (CCS) Combo 2 connector.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), the enforcement body responsible for testing and enforcing the standards for charging points has found only one network, which was non-compliant with the technical specifications. This arose from the network offering only CHAdeMO connectors at some DC chargers. An action plan was agreed and carried out to replace the relevant chargepoints and is now compliant

The responses to our stakeholder survey agreed that this provision was fit for purpose and supported the regulations in meeting their objectives.

Next steps

The consumer experience at public EV chargepoint regulations will mandate open data that is accessible to consumers, which will include data on connector types at every public chargepoint. Type 2 is now ubiquitous in the market and CCS Combo 2 has had a stronger market position than Chademo since 2017. It is very unlikely that an operator would choose to install a chargepoint that is non-compliant with the technical specifications moving forward.

Hydrogen supply

Policy and enforcement

The regulations require that from October 2017 all hydrogen refuelling connectors must comply with the ISO 17268 international technical standard. At the point that the original EU Directive was adopted, and at the point at which the UK transposed its requirements, the ISO standard was not agreed or ratified. All hydrogen stations in the UK that were operating prior to October 2017 used connectors compatible with the technical standard developed in the United States – SAE J2600. This standard is broadly similar to ISO 17268. ISO 17268 was published in February 2020, and given it is interoperable with the USA standard we have and will continue to allow connectors that comply with SAE J2600 to remain in use, alongside ISO 17268, for now.

Next steps

Over time, given that the ISO 17268 technical standard has been adopted across Europe, it will be appropriate to move to this standard to ensure cross-border interoperability for hydrogen-fuelled cars with hydrogen refuelling infrastructure internationally. We will work with hydrogen refuelling station operators to ensure that connectors compliant with ISO 17268 will be deployed in due course.

Shore-side electricity for seagoing ships

Policy and enforcement

The regulations require High Voltage Shore Connection (HVSC) Systems implemented after 12 November 2017 to comply with the general requirements of ISO/IEC/IEEE 80005-1:2012.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has engaged with the 2 ports (Orkney and Southampton) that have implemented commercial scale shore-side power installations to understand how well this provision has been complied with and any issues with compliance.

Shore-side electricity supply installations

Port	Shore-side scheme	Status	Compliance status – installation compliant with BS ISO/IEC/IEEE 80005-1:2012	Any compliance issues
Orkney (Orkney Council)	‘Green’ electrical power (<1MW) to the MV Hamnavoe NorthLink ferry while docked in Stromness	Started summer 2019 – completed September 2020	Not applicable – it is a low voltage installation, not high voltage. It is fully compliant to the latest requirement of IEEE 80005-3 regulations, which govern utility connections in ports including low voltage shore-side connections	No issues
Southampton (Associated British Ports)	Cruise terminal, 16MVA system at Horizon Cruise terminal and Mayflower Cruise Terminal in the Western Docks	Started March 2022. One terminal will be functional at any one time due to grid/power availability	Yes	No issues

As part of evaluating the regulations a survey was sent out to primarily understand the cost and benefit implications of them – only one port is affected. According to the response received from the survey sent out the purpose of Directive 2014/94/EU sets out to establish common infrastructure requirements across the European Union. Many of the vessels also operate in EU ports. The setting of a common standard was, therefore, beneficial when determining specification.

It should be noted that it may not necessarily be a Statutory Harbour Authority who may deploy shore side electricity. It is possible that a Terminal Operator who is not the Statutory Harbour Authority may implement shore power electricity. In this respect, the Schedule has appropriate wording, whereas Regulation 4 could be amended to reflect all eventualities. No unintended effects were reported in complying with the legislation.

One of the maritime commitments in the 2021 Transport decarbonisation plan was to consult on the appropriate steps to support and, if needed, mandate the uptake of shore power in the UK.

We began this consultation process in October 2021 in partnership with the Clean Maritime Council, an advisory body of key stakeholders from across the maritime sector, academia, and government. This initial engagement with industry identified limitations in the evidence base available to government.

In February 2022, we published a call for evidence that invited views on different aspects of supporting the deployment of shore power in the UK. The call for evidence ran for 12 weeks and closed on 25 April 2022. We have sought information on the:

• costs of shore power
• benefits of shore power, including the potential for emission reduction
• scale of vessel emissions at berth
• options to enable the rollout of shore power technology

We published a summary of responses in July 2022.

The announcement of £206 million for the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (or UK SHORE) as part of the refresh of the National Shipbuilding Strategy in March 2022 marked the biggest government investment ever in our commercial maritime sector.

The UK SHORE programme within the Department for Transport (DfT) focuses on the technology necessary to decarbonise the domestic maritime sector. It works in partnership with industry to tackle supply and demand side barriers, as well as developing the infrastructure and consumer confidence to support zero emission technologies. UK SHORE investment will bring jobs and opportunities, as well as direct economic benefit to our coastal communities, building back better.

Through the first 3 rounds of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, DfT has allocated over £95 million in research and development match-funding to 105 projects across the UK to support the design and development of clean maritime solutions. Projects on shore-side low and zero carbon fuelling, including bunkering of such fuels, were in scope for this competition.

In addition, UK SHORE is supporting shore-electricity through the £77million Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure (ZEVI) scheme, which is aimed at accelerating the roll out of zero emission solutions for vessels and port-side infrastructure that are nearing commercialisation. The competition was launched on 6 February 2023 and will close for applications on 19 April 2023. Shore power projects are in scope of ZEVI, providing access to funds for demonstration of this technology over a multi-year period.

Next steps

Regarding next steps of the shore power call for evidence, we are using the evidence provided by the 34 respondents to inform our future plans and policies and are currently considering shore power within the wider context of zero emissions ports.

A port produces greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions through various activities, including the use of buildings, cargo handling equipment like cranes and cargo-moving vehicles. Vessels berthed or in operation, road vehicles such as HGVs, passenger and employee vehicles, and rail transport for goods, that all form a fundamental part of the overall port operations, also produce emissions within that same port environment.

We are beginning to scope how to better understand both the range of solutions for reducing port emissions and the viability of achieving zero emissions and will share more details in due course, recognising the need to coordinate with others across government on this work.

Charging points - intelligent metering and ad-hoc access

Policy and enforcement

This provision requires intelligent metering systems to be installed. The intelligent metering system must display the time of its use to the consumer and manage data securely. Information on the performance of the intelligent metering system must also be displayed to the user at the point of charging.

Existing charging points needed to be retrofitted by 18 November 2018. Ad-hoc access must be provided to all charging points deployed after 17 November 2017. The enforcement body responsible for enforcing these regulations, OPSS, is not aware of any operators that are non-compliant with the intelligent metering aspects of the regulation.

OPSS have found that there are still a few chargepoint operators (CPOs) that are yet to implement ad-hoc access. This provision requires that a consumer can use a recharging point without having to enter into a pre-existing contract or be subject to any ongoing financial commitment with the CPOs or electricity supplier. Consumers must be able to pay for the recharging without having to subscribe or register to an electric vehicle charging network/membership which includes any long-term fees.

Some CPOs are still requiring consumers to create an account before starting a charge. The current rate of compliance is 99% and the enforcement body is engaging with non-compliant chargepoint operators to support their compliance. Through engagement with CPOs, we are working towards 100% compliance.

In the consumer experience consultation, we consulted on requiring newly installed or renewed chargepoints to have measuring instrument regulations (MIR) meters. MIR meters enable fair and standardised measurement as they accurately and consistently measure the amount of electricity used. Almost all respondents agreed with metering electricity in some form but chargepoint operators and manufacturers opposed MIR meters in direct current (DC) chargepoints. Many responses from industry stated that there was the lack of a standard for accurately measuring the electricity delivered in DC chargepoints.

The stakeholder responses to these provisions were more nuanced. All responses questioned the ad-hoc access requirement and believed that we needed to mandate roaming and plug and charge to keep the regulations relevant.

Next steps

Given the lack of standards and time needed for the development of standards for DC chargepoints, we do not propose to change regulations on MIR-compliant meters through the consumer experience at public EV chargepoint regulations. However, we will be updating guidance in 2023 to clarify current legislation.

We will be strengthening our commitment to ad-hoc access at public chargepoints through the consumer experience government response and regulations. We will be introducing a contactless payment at new chargepoints 8kW and above and existing rapids 50kW and above. Alongside this, we will be mandating payment roaming so that consumers and fleets can use one payment app across multiple chargepoint networks. We continue to monitor the development of plug and charge in the chargepoint market.

Data accessibility

EV Chargepoints

Policy and enforcement

These regulations require infrastructure operators to make geographic location data of public charging points open and accessible to users.

This provision is monitored through CPOs self-fulfilling this requirement by making their geographic data available online. The ability of the enforcement body to assess compliance is through the online presence of CPOs. If a CPO does not have an online presence, it would be difficult to be aware of non-compliance. The enforcement body is not aware of any non-compliant CPOs and thus, compliance is near 100%. CPOs are required to make geographic location data available online as a minimum. They are strongly encouraged to provide offline access in addition as good practice. The provision does not specify where or how the data is made available to consumers.

Industry responses suggested that they believed this was complied with and supported alternative fuels infrastructure.

Next steps

It is in the interest of chargepoint operators to provide geographic location data so that consumers are able to locate the right chargepoints for their needs. However, there are limitations to the current self-reporting approach, given there is little or no incentive on an operator to self-report non-compliance.

To address this, the consumer experience at public EV chargepoint regulations will mandate open data that is freely available to consumers, local authorities and other bodies. The regulations will ensure that the data complies with a data standard and is openly available in a machine-readable format.

Hydrogen

Policy and enforcement

Last year government published the UK’s hydrogen strategy which identified transport as a crucial early market for hydrogen, driving some of the earliest low carbon production in the UK. The use of hydrogen in transport is growing, particularly in heavier types of transport.

Due to the different stage of the hydrogen vehicle market in comparison to the electric vehicle market, the bulk of enforcement activity has been aimed at ensuring that electric chargepoints are meeting their obligations under the regulations.

There are just 233 fuel cell vehicles on the road as of September 2022 (in comparison over 1,000,000 vehicles had a plug). Nevertheless, there are a number of websites and mobile applications that make the locations of the 10 hydrogen refuelling stations in the UK readily accessible.

Next steps

We will work with data providers to ensure that location data continues to be available to the public in an accurate and consistent manner.

Forward look

The EV charging infrastructure market has changed considerably since the regulations were introduced. The number of public chargepoints has increased from 7,211 in 2017 to over 42,250 in May 2023 and we expect continued, accelerated deployment. We are therefore taking decisive actions to ensure the regulations remain fit for purpose.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are central to reducing carbon emissions from road transport and the consumer experience at public EV chargepoints government response outlines the government approach to improving the experience of consumers accessing public charging infrastructure. We are seeking to lay this legislation in Parliament in the coming months.

This will boost confidence in the public network and support the transition to EVs. We will simplify payment at chargepoints, ensure reliability across the rapid network, make it easier to locate chargepoints and open data so that consumers can find chargepoints that meet their needs.

Roaming was raised by multiple stakeholders as an industry priority. We will be mandating payment roaming 24 months after the consumer experience at public EV chargepoint regulations come into effect. We are also consulting to extend the contactless to slower chargepoints to prevent a double standard in experience emerging between those with off-street parking and those without.

Shore power is one of the available technologies to reduce vessel emissions at berth. The call for evidence launched in 2022 gathered evidence on the impacts, costs and benefits of shore power and highlighted support for government’s coordinating function in the uptake of shore power. We are using this data to inform our future plans and policies and are currently considering shore power within the wider context of zero emissions ports.

As set out in the recent Hydrogen strategy and Transport Decarbonisation Plan, hydrogen is likely to play a significant role in decarbonising transport, particularly where energy density requirements or refuelling times offer in use advantages.