Celý program — aj so zdrojmi

Payment friction remains one of the most cited reasons drivers distrust public charging, and the roaming/contactless debate has dragged on since PAS 1899 and the OZEV consultation. The real question is whether interoperability gets solved by hardware mandates or by payment-layer abstraction from providers like Paua — and which approach actually reduces cost for CPOs. Anyone running a network with fragmented back-office systems should care about the answer.

HGV electrification lags well behind vans and cars because depot power upgrades, payload loss, and route range anxiety are unsolved at fleet scale. The Swain Group's operational experience matters because most eHGV commentary is theoretical — this is a chance to hear what actually breaks when you try to run electric trucks daily. Fleet operators and grid planners sizing depot connections should pay attention.

With EVA England, REA, Energy Saving Trust and BEAMA in the room, this session sits at the intersection of consumer advocacy, industry lobbying and technical standards — three groups that don't always agree on what 'accelerating adoption' requires. The stakes are whether the UK gets coherent policy or another round of overlapping initiatives; CPOs and installers need clarity on where regulation is actually heading, not just intent.

Charging speed and hardware reliability still top driver complaint lists, and this panel mixes OEM (Nissan), fleet (ambulance service), and hardware vendors (Zaptec, Circontrol) — perspectives that rarely share a stage. The value is in where vehicle-side and infrastructure-side priorities clash, since faster charging on paper often means new grid or thermal constraints in practice.

On-street and kerbside charging is where EV equity actually gets decided, since renters and terraced-housing residents have no driveway option — and local authorities like Coventry are the ones stuck balancing planning rules, street clutter objections and funding gaps. With Motability Foundation and telecoms infra (Ericsson) involved, expect the accessibility and connectivity angles to get real attention rather than the usual charge-point-count headlines.

Reliability and fairness are the two metrics regulators (via the public charge point regulations) are now enforcing with fines, so this keynote sets the tone for how seriously the industry treats uptime data and pricing transparency. Coming from FairCharge, expect a consumer-first framing that puts pressure on CPOs still treating 99% reliability targets as aspirational rather than mandatory.

Grid connection delays are consistently named the single biggest blocker to charging rollout, with multi-year queues now standard for high-power sites. Hearing directly from National Grid on where costs and timescales actually originate — rather than industry speculation — is essential for anyone budgeting a depot or forecourt project today.

Freight electrification talk is usually aspirational; this panel is explicitly about operators already running electric trucks, which is rarer and more valuable data. With DAF, Voltloader and logistics operators represented, the real test is whether the economics and uptime match the pilot-stage promises the industry has been making for years.

Commercial vehicle charging needs — MW-scale power, larger bays, dedicated corridors — are fundamentally different from car charging, and the UK has no dedicated national network yet. With GRIDSERVE, First Bus and Milence (the pan-European truck charging JV) on stage, this session should reveal whether a UK build-out plan is actually forming or still stuck at the pilot stage.

Local authority partnerships determine how fast (and how equitably) public charging reaches areas the market wouldn't serve alone, and Believ has been one of the more active CPOs in this space. The open question is what procurement and funding models are actually working now that many councils' initial LEVI-funded rollouts are underway.

Public charging still costs drivers multiples of home charging on a per-mile basis, a gap that disproportionately hits those without driveways — a core equity issue for mass adoption. Energy Saving Trust's involvement suggests this will focus on tariff structures and VAT disparities rather than headline price-per-kWh comparisons.

Fleet telematics and networked chargers widen the attack surface just as depot charging scales for ambulances, buses and logistics operators — a breach here isn't abstract IT risk, it's vehicles that can't move. Worth watching for how operators like Yorkshire Ambulance Service and test bodies like UTAC define real-world threat models versus compliance-box-ticking. Anyone specifying OCPP backends or fleet management systems should care.

Accessibility is still largely voluntary guidance (PAS 1899) rather than hard regulation, and most networks were built without wheelchair users, blind drivers or those with limited grip strength in mind. With Motability Foundation and local authority voices in the room, expect concrete detail on what compliant hardware and site layout actually looks like versus what's currently deployed. Relevant to any CPO facing procurement specs or council tender requirements.

HGV electrification is stalled less by vehicle availability than by grid connection timelines, depot power costs and unclear ZEV mandate treatment for heavy trucks. RHA's perspective matters because operators, not chargepoint companies, are the ones absorbing planning delays and connection quotes today. Key question: what specific funding or regulatory change would actually move the needle versus incremental trials.

An informal freight-focused meet-up rather than a data session — value here is networking access to operators and suppliers wrestling with HGV charging, not headline content. Useful for anyone sourcing freight electrification partners rather than seeking new market data.

Cross-pavement charging (cable gullies/channels) is one of the few near-term fixes for the ~40% of UK households without a driveway, but liability, trip-hazard risk and adoption by highways authorities remain unresolved across councils. Coventry's experience matters because it's one of the few authorities that has actually tried to operationalise this at scale rather than pilot it. Relevant to any local authority or CPO targeting on-street residential charging.

Car-oriented charger design — connector height, cable length, canopy clearance, forecourt layout — doesn't map to HGVs, and megawatt charging standards (MCS) are still immature. GRIDSERVE has actual freight corridor deployment experience, so expect specifics on what breaks when you retrofit car infrastructure for trucks rather than theoretical requirements.

Bus depot electrification is the most advanced heavy-fleet use case in the UK, making First Bus's experience a genuine reference point on grid connection lead times, DNO negotiations and power management at scale — the same problems now facing HGV and van fleet operators. Useful benchmark for anyone sizing infrastructure for 50+ vehicle depots.

Energy UK represents generators and suppliers who ultimately decide grid capacity allocation, tariff structures and flexibility incentives that determine whether charging infrastructure is viable at scale. The real question is whether this keynote signals concrete commitments on connection reform or repeats general transition rhetoric — CPOs and DNOs should listen for anything specific on grid capacity timelines.

Grid connection delays remain the single biggest bottleneck to charger rollout, and this panel pairs the network operator (National Grid) with the people actually stuck waiting for connections (local authorities, Transport for Wales). Worth attending to see whether panellists offer specific process fixes — reformed connection queues, anticipatory reinforcement — or just restate the problem everyone in the room already knows.

Installer and technician shortages are already extending lead times on charger deployment, and the industry has no agreed pipeline for training at the volume the rollout requires. Cenex's read on what's actually driving the shortfall — pay, career visibility, qualification frameworks — matters more to workforce planning than another headcount-shortage statistic.

Smart/V2G flexibility trials keep producing promising results that rarely translate into commercial products, and the gap between trial data and deployable tariffs is exactly where most flexibility value is currently being lost. Centre for Net Zero's trial data is worth hearing for what specifically failed to scale, not just what worked in pilot conditions.

Multi-site commercial rollouts expose the operational reality glossed over in single-site case studies — sequencing, contractor coordination, procurement consistency across sites with different grid conditions. Motus Commercials' account is useful precisely because it's a mid-scale, real-world rollout rather than a flagship megaproject, making it more transferable to typical fleet operators planning their own expansion.

The ZEV mandate's trajectory of rising annual sales quotas is the single biggest demand-forecasting variable for charge point operators and fleet buyers alike. Flexibilities, credit trading and potential post-2030 adjustments will directly shape how much charging infrastructure needs to be deployed and where. Anyone sizing a network business case around UK EV uptake needs a clear read on where policy is actually heading, not just the target.

Grid capacity constraints, not charger hardware, are now the binding limit on rollout speed, making smart energy management and flexibility services central to unlocking new sites. This matters to DNOs, CPOs and site hosts trying to avoid multi-year grid connection queues. The open question: which smart-system approaches actually reduce connection costs and timelines at scale versus remaining pilot-stage concepts.

Cross-border charging interoperability - roaming agreements, payment standards, pricing transparency - remains a persistent friction point for EV drivers and a commercial headache for operators expanding beyond the UK. E.ON Drive's pan-European footprint gives this a concrete operator perspective rather than theory. Worth attending to understand what actually breaks down when scaling a network across multiple regulatory regimes.

Motorway service areas are the highest-utilisation, highest-visibility charging sites in the UK and a proxy for whether rapid/ultra-rapid charging can meet mainstream driver expectations on reliability and speed. Moto operates at the sharp end of that experience. The key question is what specifically is changing in site design, uptime or capacity to handle growing EV traffic during peak travel periods.

A BEAMA-hosted networking session signals where industry standards bodies are steering the flexibility conversation - relevant to anyone tracking how smart charging and V2G requirements will be codified. Useful for building relationships ahead of formal flexibility mandates rather than for technical content itself.

Local authority planning delays and inconsistent national-local policy alignment are widely cited as the practical bottleneck to meeting 2030 infrastructure targets, more than capital availability. With a county council, a fleet marketplace, and two EV infrastructure firms on the panel, this should surface where planning and investment priorities actually diverge between national ambition and delivery on the ground.

Charging software - payment processing, session management, back-office integration - is where margin and user experience are increasingly won or lost as hardware commoditises. A European perspective from Paythru should clarify how UK software requirements compare with continental markets on interoperability and compliance.

HGV charging is the next major infrastructure build-out after cars, requiring far higher power delivery, different site economics, and dedicated freight corridors - and it's still in early, capital-intensive deployment. With Milence, a haulage operator, and a truck dealer group represented, this session should give a rare ground-truth view of what's actually working (and what isn't) in the first wave of high-power HGV sites.

Retail-anchored charging rollouts hinge on contractor coordination and delivery logistics far more than technology choice, and Co-op's multi-site programme is a real test case for that. Anyone managing similar large-portfolio deployments should get concrete lessons on what delayed or derailed installs, not just headline site counts.

Standard end-of-day networking reception - value is in the informal conversations, not content.

Defining 'success' for 2030 electrification is contested: is it charger count, utilisation rates, grid readiness, or driver cost parity? With an independent energy advisor and Energy Saving Trust represented, this keynote should push past target-setting rhetoric toward the metrics that will actually be used to judge whether the UK's transition delivered.

A community-building networking session for women in the solar and renewables sector - relevant for those building industry relationships and mentorship networks rather than for session content.