We caught up with Simon Pickett, SSE Energy Solutions, Head of EV Assets and Technology, who explains his views on Sustainability and EV, as well as key things to consider when helping businesses delivery their decarbonisation goals.
What do you do at SSE and how long have you worked here?
I am the Head of EV Assets and Technology for SSE Energy Solutions and I’m responsible for making sure our EV hubs go live and stay live and open to our customers. I’ve been with SSE for just over three years now.
What do you find is a key challenge for businesses trying to reach net zero and decarbonise their operations?
Education is everything in this space. People are understandably adverse to change and many simply avoid it until they have to, however we are in a situation globally, where we need to take action before and not after. Balancing this against commercial aspects like costs and operational timings is difficult but increasingly this is getting easier, cheaper and more practical. We aim to help that transition by providing access to charging along the route and in places that it’s needed.
Why does sustainability matter to customers using our EV hubs?
It comes down to a very simple point – is the activity repeatable without ever increasing damage or impact? I believe our customers want to know that they are using clean energy, getting value for money and that what we are providing will be reliable for them. From our hubs and the resulting EVs on the roads powered from them, we are improving air quality, reducing brake dust (as these vehicles have regen) and providing green clean energy supplies for vehicles rather than fossil fuels.
What is the importance of providing EV hubs that are reliable and sourced by green energy?
We are part of an end-to-end value chain, as a wider group, from wind and solar farms right through to the motors in the vehicles. This means our investments and returns are continuing to cycle money and resources back into improving our network, making more chargers available and doing so in a way that helps our customers transition whilst also creating green collar jobs and long term ecosystems in renewable technology.
What are the key things to consider when delivering these EV hubs for public users?
Customer experience and ease of access for should always be a key challenge here. We need to deploy chargers in places where people already go (keeping in mind that charging predominantly should be taking place when the vehicle or you are resting), with suitable power offered for the use case of the users and in a way that future proofs the site so we know it can and will last. Amenities, welfare facilities and accessibility are all considered carefully and we complete detailed lessons learned activities after each site, including seeking customer feedback so we can continue to improve for our customer, providing them what they want and need and deploying solutions at a faster and faster pace.
