Staying in my sons apartment in Clapham, London, last weekend I was surprised to discover that the fast charger at the end of the street had been installed by ESB energy. Their website indicates that they already have a significant network of chargers in London and other cities. They are also developing a number of charging hubs with multiple chargers. Given the inadequate charging structure in Ireland, wouldn’t it be make more sense to see these resources expended in Ireland rather than the UK? – M Murphy from Co Waterford
Well, it’s a good question. After all, the ESB is still a partly State-owned utility. Surely it’s natural that it should focus on the needs of Irish electric vehicle (EV) drivers before worrying about other markets?
That is, at best, only partially true though. There is a theory in business that if you put your focus and your resources into one particular market, work hard at understanding its nuances and proclivities, and really get it right, then you’ll (a) be in a good position overall, and (b) be better prepared to move on to other markets, where you can use your hard-won experience.
That, in the case of the ESB and its charging points, would seem to be a reasonable idea, and especially – as M Murphy points out – while Ireland still suffers from an underdeveloped charging infrastructure, it might seem reasonable to ask the ESB to do things right here first, and then look outwards.
Mind you, there is always the danger of becoming very parochial about this.
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We raised the point with the ESB, and this was the official reply: “ESB builds, owns, and operates EV charging networks across ROI (Republic of Ireland), NI (Northern Ireland) and GB (Great Britain), serving both public and business users.
“ESB’s involvement in the more mature UK EV charging market provides opportunities to build capability and experience in an area with rapidly developing technology, establish cost-effective supply chains that benefit all our customers and operate and compete alongside competitors that are now participating in the Irish market.
“ESB has a network of over 1,600 charge points across the island of Ireland and continues to expand this network, providing convenient, quick, and easy charging for EV drivers.”
As always in this column, we like to look at numbers, so let’s do that. As pointed out, ESB operates 1,600 charging points across the island of Ireland, and only a handful of those are in Northern Ireland (one of them is not far from my own house, as it happens), leaving the vast majority of those 1,600 within the bounds of the Republic.
ESB’s total number of chargers across the UK and Ireland stands at 2,100, so that leaves 500 in England, Scotland, and Wales. Most of the ESB chargers in Britain are clustered around London and Birmingham.
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So that means, even with the ESB’s investment and efforts in Britain, it still has about three times as many chargers in Ireland as it does on the other side of the Irish Sea.
Equally, although the sentiment about getting good at one market before moving on to another is a sensible one, from a business perspective, there’s a solid counterargument.
Especially where new technology is involved, and let’s not forget that EV charging tech is actually still quite new, and fast-evolving, it makes sense for the ESB – or anyone – to be present in multiple markets at once. Given the scale of the British market, the ESB can garner a great deal of useful experience and knowledge.
While there is clearly a division of resources involved, the experience and knowledge are invaluable, and can be channelled directly back into improving the EV charging experience for Irish drivers. We just need to make sure that the channel is functioning properly and efficiently.
