IN Brief:
- ChargePoint Navigator now provides site-level connection costs, eligibility, and timeline information.
- The platform is used by 108 of 133 authorities in UK Power Networks’ area.
- Other British network operators have adopted the underlying platform for local charging programmes.
UK Power Networks has expanded ChargePoint Navigator with additional information on the likely cost, eligibility, timescale, and viability of electricity connections for proposed public charging sites.
The free digital platform combines site selection, planning data, rollout monitoring, and connection guidance for local authorities and chargepoint operators. New dashboards and visualisation functions reduce the need to assemble information from several separate datasets.
Introduced during 2024 to support local authorities applying to the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure fund, ChargePoint Navigator is available to all 133 councils within UK Power Networks’ distribution area. It is now used by 108 authorities, up from 82 in May 2025.
Councils using the platform increased their first-time application success rate from 37% to 100% within a year. Access to network data allowed them to identify technically credible locations and provide stronger evidence before projects entered formal funding and connection processes.
The updated Connections Insights function provides early information for individual chargepoint locations. Authorities can compare prospective sites, identify where a connection appears more straightforward, and examine likely network requirements before submitting a full application.
Local authorities and their selected chargepoint operators can also work from the same information, reducing differences between procurement assumptions, site-selection work, and the electrical conditions encountered once a delivery partner begins detailed design.
ChargePoint Navigator has been adopted outside UK Power Networks’ own licence area. SP Energy Networks, Transport for Wales, and Northern Ireland Electricity Networks are using the platform to support local-authority charging work across Scotland, north-west England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Further information about the platform and related network-planning tools is available through the UK Power Networks Smart Grid Index.
Network data moves earlier in project planning
Public charging projects often begin with transport demand, parking availability, land ownership, accessibility, and funding criteria, while electrical capacity enters the process later. By that point, an apparently suitable site may require expensive reinforcement or face a longer connection programme than the authority expected.
Bringing network information into initial site selection allows alternatives to be compared before design and procurement costs accumulate. A nearby low-voltage feeder may appear convenient, but the final load could require a new substation, high-voltage connection, additional switchgear, or a different point of connection.
Likely cost and timescale information remains indicative rather than a substitute for a formal design and connection offer. Network conditions can change as other projects accept offers, load forecasts develop, and reinforcement plans are updated, so the platform improves early decisions without guaranteeing the final engineering outcome.
The approach forms part of a wider change in distribution-network customer service. SP Energy Networks has also introduced a digital grid-connection planning tool, reflecting growing demand for self-service information before customers enter the formal applications queue.
Public charging portfolios create a particular need for common data because a local authority may be considering hundreds or thousands of sockets across residential streets, car parks, community sites, and transport corridors. Assessing every location through an individual manual enquiry would consume substantial resource for both the authority and the network operator.
Electrical requirements vary with charger rating and expected utilisation. A group of 7kW kerbside units presents a different load profile from a rapid-charging hub, while diversity assumptions depend on parking duration, tariff design, local vehicle ownership, and managed-charging capability.
Connection insight can also support staged delivery. A site may initially operate within available capacity using load management, with further bays energised after reinforcement, although that approach requires contractual clarity over maximum import, control arrangements, communications, and the consequences of exceeding an agreed limit.
Shared data should improve handover into detailed engineering, but site surveys, cable routes, earthing, protective devices, metering, civil works, accessibility, impact protection, and maintenance space remain project-specific and cannot be resolved by a planning map.
ChargePoint Navigator does not remove the physical constraints of distribution networks. It makes them visible earlier, when changes to the site list remain possible and unsuitable locations can be removed before progressing too far into procurement.
