A feeder pillar is the lockable street cabinet that connects kerbside EV chargers to the electricity network.
Key Takeaways
- A feeder pillar is the lockable street cabinet where a kerbside charger’s power supply starts.
- It houses the network connection, isolation, protection and outgoing circuits for one or more posts.
- It exists because on-street chargers cannot take power from a building — the project needs its own connection.
- Drivers never use or open it; it belongs to the operator’s side of the installation.
An on-street charge point stands on public land with no building behind it, so it cannot take power from a house or a shop — the pillar is where its supply starts. Inside are the connection, protection and switching parts that feed one or more nearby charge points.
Why Kerbside Chargers Cannot Just Use a Building Supply
Most chargers take power from the building they serve: a wallbox from the home’s panel, a workplace charger from the site’s switchboard. Kerbside charging is different.
The posts stand at the edge of the road, usually on the footway, and their users live along the street — often in terraced homes with no driveway, the group our guide to running a cable across the pavement is written for. No house can supply a public post, and the post cannot be wired to a stranger’s meter. The project needs its own connection to the street’s electricity network, in a weatherproof, lockable home at street level. That home is the feeder pillar — one small part of the wider picture in what EV charging infrastructure actually includes.
What Is Inside a Feeder Pillar
Designs vary, but a typical pillar gathers the same jobs into one cabinet:
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Network connection (cut-out) | Where the underground supply cable terminates, with the network operator’s main fuse. |
| Isolator switch | Lets an engineer switch off everything downstream of the pillar for maintenance. |
| Protection devices | Breakers and residual-current protection sized for the chargers fed. |
| Distribution ways | Separate outgoing circuits, so one pillar can feed a single post or a short row of them. |
| Metering point (in many designs) | Space for a meter recording the energy the chargers draw, so the operator can be billed. |
What a feeder pillar is not: it is not the charger itself — it holds no connector and runs no session — and it is not the network cabinet that supplies houses. The pillar belongs to the charging project.
Who Installs and Owns the Pillar
Three parties usually touch a kerbside installation. The network operator makes the new connection from its underground cable into the pillar. The charging operator — or the council that commissioned the posts — installs the pillar and charge points and owns them. A licensed electrician or the operator’s contractor wires and tests the outgoing circuits. Because the pillar stands on public highway land, the project also needs the highway authority’s permission for the cabinet and the cable runs under the footway — one reason kerbside schemes take longer than a charger on a private wall. As in other public projects in our guide to commercial charging station installation costs, the groundwork and new connection, not the post, are the slow, expensive parts.
The Charger at the End of the Pillar’s Cable
Once the pillar is live, the charge points it feeds are ordinary public AC posts of the kind explained in how commercial charging stations work. EVDANCE’s EV-AC03201T dual-connector AC station is built for this duty: two Type 2 connectors sharing up to 43 kW (22 kW per connector), OCPP 1.6J, RFID access and an IP54 enclosure for unattended outdoor use. One pillar feeding two dual-connector posts gives a short street four connectors without four network connections. Operators planning a street scheme can start from our commercial EV charging page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a feeder pillar the same as a meter box?
No. A meter box sits on a building and holds that building’s meter. A feeder pillar is a free-standing street cabinet serving the street — in a charging scheme, the supply connection and protection for public charge points. Some designs include a metering point, but metering is only one of its jobs.
Can one feeder pillar feed several chargers?
Yes. Pillars have several outgoing ways, so one cabinet commonly feeds a small group of posts. How many depends on the supply available at that point on the street and the chargers’ ratings — a design question, not a fixed number.
Who do I contact if a feeder pillar is damaged?
Do not touch it — treat a damaged street cabinet as live equipment and keep clear. Report it to the operator named on the charge point, or to the council. Only their engineers should open it.
Related Reading
- What Is EV Charging Infrastructure and Why Does It Matter?
- How Do Commercial EV Charging Stations Work?
- Can You Run an EV Charging Cable Across the Pavement? (UK)
- How Much Does It Cost to Install a Commercial EV Charging Station?
