Case Study: How Durham County Council is Powering on Towards Net-Zero Through Fleet Electrification with Mer

Overview

Durham County Council has been upgrading and overhauling its EV fleet charging capabilities across the county. Of note is Meadowfield, the council’s largest depot, which was selected for a significant expansion of its charging infrastructure. After undergoing a tendering process, Mer was selected as the authority’s charge point operator and installation partner.

The Client

Durham County Council has a firm commitment to reaching its net-zero goal completely by 2045 and cutting a minimum of 80% of its emissions by 2030. The council operates a large fleet of almost 100 EV vehicles and is currently working on replacing its existing ICE vehicles with EV alternatives. Its fleet includes refuse collection vehicles, vans and pool cars.

Therefore, the council needed to expand its existing charging capabilities to meet the needs of its ever-growing EV fleet. The council decided that its Meadowfield depot would be best suited for upgraded charging infrastructure and capabilities. Meadowfield is the council’s largest and busiest depot, with a wide variety of vehicles being serviced there, from refuse collection vehicles to pool cars. This meant that it could act as a centralised hub for the EV fleet, due to the space being much larger and the site having a pre-existing substation that could support the increased electricity demand.

The Solution

After undergoing a tender process to find the right Charge Point Operator, Durham County Council selected Mer as its partner in the charging infrastructure upgrade at Meadowfield. Mer was selected due to its extensive aftercare program, excellent back-office reporting and previous experience in working with the council for its public and private charging infrastructure. In total, Mer installed one rapid HYC200 and thirteen 22kW duals.

Mer helped Durham County Council in building a fleet optimisation plan, through our data gathering capabilities and experience. This helped to provide a solution that would allow the council to use four to five vehicles per charger over a period of 24 hours. Meanwhile, the higher power charger meant that vehicles can be charged while the crew is switched out for the next shift. All of this helped to ease the reliance the council had on utilising public chargers which could create bottlenecks otherwise. Its EV fleet has already covered 400,000 miles without issue, which is almost the same distance as a journey to the moon and back.