Commercial EV charging points across East Sussex

The estates around Newhaven, Hastings, Eastbourne, Uckfield and Lewes are the county's main commercial concentrations, alongside the mixed commercial stock of Brighton and Hove. Many of these premises are older, converted, or have had their supply arrangements changed over decades.

So the first job here is establishing what is actually in the ground rather than what the paperwork says. It is the county where we most often find the supply is not what the occupier believed, and that is much better discovered at survey than on installation day.

UK Power Networks operates across East Sussex through its South Eastern network, the same as Kent, so the connection process is consistent across the county.

On the smaller sites that make up most of the county's commercial stock, a new connection is rarely the right answer. Load management on the existing supply almost always gets a useful number of bays installed for a fraction of the cost, and a phased approach lets demand prove itself before more is spent.

Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings have a strong visitor economy, and destination charging at hotels, attractions and car parks behaves differently from workplace charging. Dwell times are shorter and less predictable, and the users are not the people who own the site.

That pushes towards units that take contactless payment and towards accessible bay design, because charging open to the public brings requirements a private yard does not.

A large share of East Sussex's commercial property sits in conservation areas or in buildings where fixing equipment to the facade is not welcome. Where that is the case we would rather run a pedestal in the car park than put anything on the building, and the Rolec range includes units designed to sit quietly where a wall unit is the only option.

The housing is dominated by Victorian and Edwardian terraces in Brighton, Hove, Eastbourne and Hastings, with interwar suburbs behind them and rural stock inland. The terraces are the hardest, because on-street parking often means there is no compliant route from the property to the car, and we will say so rather than fitting something that causes a problem later.

The first is an older or converted commercial building where nobody is certain what supply is actually in the ground. Establishing that is the whole first phase, and it is far better done at survey than on installation day.

The second is a hotel, attraction or town centre car park serving visitors rather than staff, which needs contactless payment and an accessible bay layout because the users do not work there.

The third is a small estate unit where a handful of bays is the realistic start, with the groundwork sized so more can be added once demand proves itself.