T0419 Specialist Technical Support for Supervision of Construction of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) to support EV Charging at Motorway Service Areas (MSA) - Phase 3

National Highways has been instructed by the Secretary of State (SoS) (through DfT) to deliver a number of installations of ESS at priority MSAs to bridge the gap between National Grid / DNOs supply capacity and the power supply capacity required for high powered electric vehicle (EV) chargers (circa 150-350kW). A capital budget of £10.8M from the Air Quality Designated Fund has been allocated for this activity or which £10.6M (inc VAT) has been set-aside for the NEC4 ECC ESS Procurement. To accelerate progress towards the Government target, the budget has subsequently been increased to £16.6M with a further commitment of Client investment. The aim of the ESS at MSA project is to enable provision of high-powered EV charge points at MSAs that have insufficient grid connection capacities and hence provide customers with confidence that their vehicles can be rapidly charged on route when using the National Highways' strategic road network. This will support transition of light vehicles for both personal and commercial fleets to electric, supporting the Client's Net Zero Carbon Plan .