How can you enable joined-up EV charging across estates?

The public sector’s move towards electrifying fleets and installing EV infrastructure is gathering pace. Net zero commitments and ESG requirements are key drivers for this, as is the need to support growing EV uptake among staff and visitors.

As public organisations often operate across multiple sites, each with its own operational dynamics, successful management and delivery of EV charging relies heavily on your choice of EV infrastructure. This includes the charge point management system (CPMS) you work with.

What do you need from a CPMS when operating multiple sites? 

Visibility and control via real-time data

When dealing with complex, distributed estates, a CPMS that provides clear visibility and comprehensive reporting across your charging estates is key. Even better if it displays all your sites in one dashboard view, giving you a quick, easy-to-read snapshot of every site’s EV charging utilisation, availability, revenue and energy metrics. This is essential for understanding charger performance and to identify issues; it’s also invaluable when adding new sites and scaling networks. Ideally, a CPMS with remote monitoring capabilities will detect faults before they escalate, keeping you in-the-know and in control.

Robust, intelligent energy management across sites  

Managing or balancing energy is another key element of a reliable, functional EV charging network, and another factor to consider when selecting a CPMS. When EV charging is installed, it doesn’t just increase energy demand, it changes the entire energy profile of the site and, without proper monitoring, the shift can result in disruption to services and higher costs. When there are multiple sites involved, it becomes even more important for energy to be managed strategically to control costs and keep operations running smoothly. A smart CPMS provider will class energy management as high priority. The system will integrate with building management processes to balance and manage energy distribution, avoiding outages and grid overload. It will also monitor multiple chargers and sites from one dashboard – again, visibility into performance is key.

The ability to scale seamlessly

If you already run multiple sites, future expansion is likely. That means your EV charging strategy needs to consider long-term scalability and your CPMS solution needs to support this potential growth. A hardware-agnostic CPMS will easily integrate with different types of hardware, software and charging speeds, so your network is future-proofed and can grow without barriers. It’s also worth checking that your CPMS provider has experience of seamlessly migrating hardware to new software to avoid costly removal and replacement of hardware.

Fast-track your CPMS procurement with confidence and compliance

Choosing a CPMS that supports your current and future EV charging network can be complex and time-consuming. One way to simplify the process is to select a system that has been awarded a place on the ESPO framework.

ESPO is a public sector-owned buying organisation with over 40 years’ experience supporting procurement across the public sector. Procuring a CPMS through ESPO gives you confidence and full peace of mind that the system meets required compliance standards and has a proven track record within the sector. ESPO also enables direct award without competition, saving you time by avoiding lengthy tender processes and reducing procurement timescales - without compromising compliance or quality.

Fuuse is a leading CPMS provider, working in partnership with local authorities and public sector organisations across the UK. We are pleased to have been awarded a position on the ESPO framework under Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (VCI3), Back Office Solutions. Our software is designed to improve the EV charging experience and support network growth across multiple sites, making it a scalable and well-suited choice for public sector organisations.

As well as ESPO, Fuuse has been awarded positions on two frameworks within the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and can also be found on the Oxford EV DPS. You can find out more here.

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