Petrol Stations and EV Charging

stephen1974 · Post by **stephen1974** » Tue Nov 26, 2019 2:27 pm

Does anyone deal with petrol stations?
I don't have access to the Blue Book at the moment, which I believe is where I need to go to find this out, but also some clarification would be useful as well.

A company has a petrol pump for private use. They have also installed an EV charging station right next to the pump. Electricity and Petrol fumes are a bad combo. Had client get an expert assessment, they were not happy with report as its a costly fix.

Client is asking for the minimum safe distance the EV point can be from the pump. My understanding is that there is no minimum safe distance in terms of, it must be 1.5m etc from a pump. Instead there should be a survey done to establish the hazardous zone around the pump and the EV point cannot be in that hazardous zone. However, I could be completely wrong.

Tried speaking to various official people but 'advice is for members only' seems to be the response of the day.

Post by **bernicarey** » Tue Nov 26, 2019 3:33 pm

I'm not so sure about the Blue Book, I'd start by looking at DSEAR 2002.

My first reaction on reading your post was 'Hang about, who installed the Charging Point? If they were a competent electrician they should know about installing electrics in DSEAR/ATEX zones....'

Not having an EV myself, not any experience of EV charging, I'm wondering what the safety rating of such charging equipment is?

I note that C&G do a 1 day course for electricians to know about EV Charging points and one of the topics covered is, ... wait for it...

Planning Permission and Explosive Atmospheres

https://sestrainingsolutions.co.uk/cour ... -charging/

So that's where I'd be looking at. Don't forget that the petrol pump is electrically powered......

stephen1974 · Post by **stephen1974** » Tue Nov 26, 2019 4:25 pm

From what I can see it is, at least in part, in the blue book. Section 9.5.11

I finally spoke with a company that installs points and they directed me to the blue book as well, though they also sent me some information over on hazardous zones and they do have fixed distances it would seem, though they vary depending one whats in place. That should be enough for me to say to the client it must be X metres away from the pump (that includes the car being charged)

No idea who installed the charging point. Yes, they should have known but for what ever reason they either didnt know or didnt care. Thats something for the client to take up with them as its going to cost them to have this put right.

DSEAR does help by talking about the establishment of hazardous zones, but is a little vague of determining what equipment or processes meet the definitions they have in place. Once you have that information though it becomes a lot clearer. Didn't help that I read a technical document on hazardous zones that went in to all sorts of formulas for measuring this that and the other. That made it seem a lot more complicated than it actually is.