Stakeholders Begin the Discussion on Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure and Battery Swapping Standardization in Kenya

The workshop was officially opened by the Chief Manager Standards Department of KEBS, Mr. Zacharia Lukorito, who acknowledged the continued collaboration between KEBS and UNEP. He also gave KEBS commitment to supporting the transition to electric mobility as evidenced by the recent formation of the technical committee on Electric Mobility, KEBS TC 199. In the two-day workshop, the findings of a study that had been conducted on the state of play in Kenya and international best practices in charging infrastructure and battery swapping were shared. Findings from the 2-wheeler pilot demonstration in Kenya and Uganda were also shared providing good insights for the basis of the discussion on standardization. The case study of Thailand’s IEC based standards on battery swapping and charging infrastructure was also shared. This case as well as that of the Philippines will inform standardization in Kenya seeing that there has been precedence in other similar demographic countries.

The following are some of the recommendations that were agreed on in the meeting:

1. development of Kenyan standards on charging infrastructure and battery swapping will need to happen as a matter of priority
2. evaluate charging infrastructure and battery swapping interoperability in:

• Payment Options Use of different RFID cards.
• Network Open charge point protocol (OCPP) a standard used in Europe

3. development of a national guideline on charging infrastructure;
4. revision of the building code to incorporate charging stations in buildings;
5. revision of the National Grid code;
6. development of a common unified industry voice will be key in growing the industry locally and regionally as well as stimulating healthy competition;
7. provision of Government incentives fiscal (land & concessional rates, taxes) and non-fiscal (streamline license process);
8. review of electricity tariffs so as to reduce the cost of electricity purchase by the charging point operators which in turn results in lower charging costs for consumers;
9. in the development of charging stations, use of renewable energy sources is recommended as the power generation source;
10. development of modalities for repurposing EV batteries after the end of first life (< 80% state of health) to second life use in renewable energy applications such as solar PV battery energy storage; and
11. development of battery testing laboratories.