South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue needed a station-level plan for fleet electrification. Commissioned by the Midlands Net Zero Hub and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Dynamon used ZERO to test the service’s real journeys against current electric vehicles and to size the depot charging each station would need.
Fleet
Commissioned by
Key findings
- 182 vehicles modelled from a registered fleet of 190, covering almost the whole service.
- 86% of modelled vehicles can complete at least 95% of their journeys on a current EV.
- 20 stations assessed, with depot chargers required at every location.
- 61 chargers recommended: 42 at 11 kW, 17 at 50 kW and 2 at 150 kW.
- Around 20% lower grid upgrade costs where infrastructure is shared with South Yorkshire Police.
“By combining Dynamon’s analysis with real operational fleet data and input from police subject matter experts, this project provides a robust evidence base for understanding the scale of police fleet electrification and the investment needed to deliver it.”
Kate Kirk-Walsh, Net Zero Projects Manager, Midlands Net Zero Hub
The challenge
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue has to plan fleet electrification without losing the ability to respond from its stations. The service supplied a fleet list of 190 vehicles across 20 locations, and every location needs depot charging. It needed to know which vehicles can switch to electric at their next replacement, where chargers should go, and how much power each station will draw.
The service was one of three fire and rescue fleets in the programme, with Nottinghamshire and West Yorkshire. South Yorkshire was also one of three regional clustering studies that looked at police and fire sites together, including sites alongside South Yorkshire Police.
The approach
Dynamon imported the service’s telematics into ZERO. The platform simulated each vehicle’s real journeys against current EV models, sized depot chargers for each station, and worked out the power demand at each site.
Of the 190 vehicles on the fleet list, 182 had enough telematics, or a suitable proxy, to be modelled. That is very high coverage of the fleet the service supplied.
The same study looked at South Yorkshire as a regional cluster with South Yorkshire Police. It tested where the two services’ sites sit close enough to share electrical infrastructure, and what that would mean for grid upgrade costs.
The results
Of the 182 vehicles modelled, 147 complete 100% of their journeys on a current EV, and a further 10 complete 95–99%. Together that is 157 vehicles, 86% of the modelled fleet, that can go electric at their next replacement while still completing at least 95% of their journeys.
ZERO recommended depot chargers at all 20 stations: 61 chargers in total.
The clustering work found that shared electrical infrastructure at suitable co-located sites with South Yorkshire Police could cut grid upgrade costs by around 20%, with each service keeping its own operations.
- 42 chargers at 11 kW AC
- 17 chargers at 50 kW DC
- 2 chargers at 150 kW DC
Part of a national programme
This study is one of 12 fleet reports produced for the Midlands Net Zero Hub and DESNZ, with the Home Office. Across the programme, about 7,500 vehicles were registered at 480 locations, and about 6,400 were modelled on 26.5 million miles of real telematics. Around 82% of those modelled vehicles, about 5,300, can go electric at their next replacement while completing 95% or more of their journeys. The programme recommended 1,563 depot chargers in total.
Three fire and rescue services took part: Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. Regional clustering studies in those same three areas looked at sharing electrical infrastructure between police and fire sites, and with ambulance services in the wider programme. Shared infrastructure could cut grid upgrade costs by around 20% at suitable co-located sites.
Midlands Net Zero Hub has published the national assessment of all 48 UK police forces and agencies. It estimates around 18,300 charge points across more than 2,000 police sites, and investment of about £1.4 billion. Around 80% of that cost is grid connections and electrical upgrades. Participating services received ZERO access for further scenario planning.
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue now has a station-level plan for which vehicles can electrify, where 61 chargers should go, and where sharing electrical infrastructure with South Yorkshire Police could reduce grid upgrade costs.