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EVs, Street furniture, PME and TT configurations

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Good afternoon all,


I'm part of one of the teams installing the EV charging points around London and we keep running into the same situations and problems when going through the site selection process - proximity of other electrified street furniture to the units we are installing (as well as potentially plugged in cars which is measured to the edge of the parking bay.)

Regs say that any EV installation cannot be connected to a PME system and must be converted to a TT in case of a damaged/faulty PEN conductor. Naturally if you're converting something to a TT system and not using the DNO TN-C-S earthing arrangement, there must be a reasonable distance between the TT and any other TN-C or TN-C-S systems (2m or so is reasonable).

If there were other services in the vicinity but can be proven that these have also been converted to TT and are 100% confirmed to not be using the DNO earth, would it be reasonable to say that the requirement for the 2m distance can be reduced or ignored completely? Another thought I've had is to bond the cabinets together - being on the same type of system, it makes logical sense that this would in turn reduce the Ze and improve disconnection times, both units have their methods of ADS and incorporate an RCD/RCBO of a 61008 or 61009 standard respectively.


Any other thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated as I try and figure a workaround for this issue. I understand this could work for smaller cabinets and for individual supplies, and not necessarily for street lighting which might not be adequately equipped for being converted to TT (bit of a bigger job to start installing RCDs and then giving a minor works cert etc.).
Parents

  • AJJewsbury:




    Well, isolating transformer is one option



    How would that work? You can't use it to create a separated system as most EVs check for an earth connection before commencing charge. If you attempt to create your own local TN (or TT) system then you need a source earth electrode - so back to square 1.


    The only other option I can think of is a floating system with PE connected to N (but not earth) - but as far as I know BS 7671 doesn't recognise such arrangements - which makes it quite a limb to go out on.


      - Andy.

     




    Andy, you're quite right, and this is what's described in section 5.3.4 of the IET Code of Practice for EV Charging Equipment Installation (3rd Edition, but it's been in there since the 1st Edition with no-one worrying about it). Provided that ALL of the following are met, it should be OK for Electrical Separation:


    • the protective conductor on the secondary is not connected to any conductor (including protective conductor) of the primary

    • Isolating transformer meets requirements for electrical separation

    • There is an RCD (30 mA for EV supply equipment) immediately after the secondary.

    • Only one vehicle is supplied by each transformer (one transformer per charge point).



    (Side note: for those that are still a little queasy about the situation, unearthed systems with protective conductors are discussed in BS 7430 ... as Andy says it's not really covered in sufficient detail in BS 7671 at the moment ... but I really don't think this particular situation needs to go down that rabbit hole as it's one separated system feeding one vehicle as per Section 722.)
Reply

  • AJJewsbury:




    Well, isolating transformer is one option



    How would that work? You can't use it to create a separated system as most EVs check for an earth connection before commencing charge. If you attempt to create your own local TN (or TT) system then you need a source earth electrode - so back to square 1.


    The only other option I can think of is a floating system with PE connected to N (but not earth) - but as far as I know BS 7671 doesn't recognise such arrangements - which makes it quite a limb to go out on.


      - Andy.

     




    Andy, you're quite right, and this is what's described in section 5.3.4 of the IET Code of Practice for EV Charging Equipment Installation (3rd Edition, but it's been in there since the 1st Edition with no-one worrying about it). Provided that ALL of the following are met, it should be OK for Electrical Separation:


    • the protective conductor on the secondary is not connected to any conductor (including protective conductor) of the primary

    • Isolating transformer meets requirements for electrical separation

    • There is an RCD (30 mA for EV supply equipment) immediately after the secondary.

    • Only one vehicle is supplied by each transformer (one transformer per charge point).



    (Side note: for those that are still a little queasy about the situation, unearthed systems with protective conductors are discussed in BS 7430 ... as Andy says it's not really covered in sufficient detail in BS 7671 at the moment ... but I really don't think this particular situation needs to go down that rabbit hole as it's one separated system feeding one vehicle as per Section 722.)
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