BT's Etc turns spare power in UK street cabinets into EV chargers, no new grid link

Fast Company reported in June 2024 that EV sales were growing faster than expected but there were not enough charge points, partly because upgrading local electricity distribution networks to feed new stations is a barrier. BT, the British telco, and Etc, its startup and digital incubation arm, began converting its telecom "street cabinets" into EV charge points. The cabinets typically house broadband and phone cables, but most have excess power that was not being used.

Instead of creating a new power connection, Etc draws that excess power to charge cars. The driver sees only a new charge point on the pavement; the electricity arrives from a nearby cabinet through underground cables that can run as far as 260 feet. BT owns about 90,000 street cabinets in the UK, and Etc has identified 60,000 of them as upgradeable, against a government plan for 300,000 charge points by 2030. The first charge point opened in June 2024 on a quiet street in Haddington, Scotland.

Location is part of the logic. In a BT survey of 4,000 people in the UK and US, nearly 80% of petrol and diesel drivers named the lack of convenient charging as a key barrier to buying an EV, and about 30% of UK residents have no driveway. Cabinets sit near homes, so owners can charge overnight like a phone, in the words of Etc CEO Tom Guy. As fibre replaces copper broadband, more cabinets will be decommissioned and their whole supply could go to charging.

Plug chargers into the street cabinets BT already owns, which hold power that broadband and phone gear never use.

The cabinets already have a power supply, so the slow and costly step of a new grid connection is avoided.

Most cabinets carry surplus power that was going unused.

Cabinets are on residential streets, which suits the 30% of UK households with no driveway.

Overnight charging near home fits how EV users say they want to charge.

Fibre rollout frees up more cabinet power over time, so capacity grows as copper is retired.

Before building new infrastructure, look for idle capacity in infrastructure you already own that sits where users already are.

As of the June 2024 report, only the first charge point, in Haddington, Scotland, had opened. Broadband and charging were to coexist for now. No usage or cost results were given, so the scale of the programme remained a plan rather than a measured outcome.