Planning advice for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station Australian roll out

Challenge

Ampol is an Australian transport energy provider, supplying a petrol and convenience network, as well as refining, importing and marketing fuels and lubricants. Recently Ampol launched electric vehicle charging in existing service stations, as well as business and home electricity solutions to ensure they are delivering to their customers changing energy needs.

The project is an Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) funded rollout of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations across existing Ampol sites in New South Wales and Victoria. As part of this project, Ampol required town planning assistance to identify risks and opportunities for the installation of EV charge on selected service station sites. As part of the ARENA funding, the program required short turnaround of approvals to be able to construct and deliver the project within a short timeframe.

Solution

SLR has supported the project by providing initial site selection review, developing an approval strategy with consideration of relevant risks associated with each site, planning pathways advice outlining required approvals needed for each site. SLR then completed high level site screening and due diligence advice.

The initial planning advice identified the planning controls that are pertinent to each of the states to identify triggers that may require differing forms of approval, including exempt works. A review of the applicable state legislation was undertaken to identify the relevant planning pathways that may be required.

A high-level screening process was undertaken to take into consideration design requirements for each of the sites and site attributes to determine what level of regulatory consent may be required to permit the proposed works.

Our team prepared planning applications and assisted in the collation of the supporting documents required to facilitate the approval of the application of identified pilot sites. SLR ensured lodgement of the required information to ensure the relevant correspondence is received from the authority. From gaining approvals of the pilot sites, our team gained valuable feedback to be able to undertake the full rollout of sites.

SLR has since been preparing, lodging, and gaining approvals for a further 70+ sites across New South Wales and Victoria.

Impact

Our team was able to apply our experience delivering energy transition projects, and leverage our experience and client relationship built through previous rollouts with this client (including most recently the Caltex to Ampol rebranding rollout) to successfully facilitate approvals and outcomes across a large network of sites. We provided insight to the approval pathways and timing associated to suitably program a body of work across the Ampol network.