Overview

Voco Hotels leading brand that offers unique character and style, committed to customer service and sustainability, engaged Zolb EV and their installation contractors EVlution for the fully funded installation of electric vehicle charge points at the Cardiff Voco St David’s Hotel. To support the hotels pledge to “play host and make sure you have everything you need”, they sought a reliable and efficient charging solution for their customers.

The Solution

After thoroughly understanding the needs of the Hotel, Zolb EV engaged with EVlution to develop their fully funded solution that meets the hotels needs. As many customers spend the night at the Hotel with others attending business conferences, weddings or just using the Gym, dwell time (time parked at the location) was estimated as a norm of between 1 and 48 hrs. The solution was to install Three duel 22kW AC Alfen fast chargers providing 6 charge points. To ensure compliance with the public charge point regulations 2023 the site required a contactless payment terminal, this not only meets the regulation but makes the charging experience easy for all users.

An upgrade to the hotels electrical supply capacity was required via a MIC (Maximum Import Capacity) increase. Evlution arranged this via the DNO (Distribution Network Operator). The supply upgrade included DNO inspection of the main fuses and local transformer.  

The design also included impact protection for the chargers and bay marking to clearly display EV parking/charging only.

Key Features of Alfen Eve Pro Double – Alfens Flagship for Smart Solutions

The Eve Double Pro-line is Alfen’s flagship smart solution for the semi-public environment such as businesses, supermarkets and hotels. Its rugged case is designed for high usage and regular user changeovers and can be wall or pole mounted. It houses two sockets, with optional load balancing across both.

  1. Charging capacity of 3.7kW to 22kW.
  2. Equipped with two sockets.
  3. European A-quality: a solid and premium product.
  4. Complies with all relevant standards including IEC 61851:2017 – IEC 61851:2017 and has RCDs that protect against leakage currents
  5. Dynamic load balancing enabled due to co-operation with smart meters (DSMR) or external energy meters (Modbus TCP/IP)

Installation Process

The installation and commissioning process involved collaboration between Zolb EV, Virta, the Hotel and the EVlution certified installation team. The following steps were undertaken:

  1. Site Assessment: A thorough assessment of the charging site was conducted to determine the optimal location for the charger and to ensure compliance with safety and regulatory standards, power availability and cost of installation works.
  2. Electrical, Mechanical Civil and layout designs.
  3. Production of Programme, RAMS and Safe Systems of work.
  4. Installation of a new electricity distribution equipment including Distribution board, O-PEN device, breakers, supply cables, cable tray, DNO fuse inspection due to the required uplift of the MIC (Maximum Import Capacity).
  5. Charger bases, impact protection bollards, trench and ductwork.
  6. Charger Installation.
  7. Payment Terminal installation.
  8. EV charging ground and bay marking.
  9. Integration with Virta’s back-office: The chargers were integrated with back-office to provide seamless payment, monitoring, control and management reporting of charging activities.
  10. Training and Handover.