The Numbers Behind Maryland’s $150 EVSE Registration Program

Public Information Act Request Reveals Weights and Measures Testing Budget

The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) anticipates spending $3,370,684.21 over five years to implement testing and compliance for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) under its Weights and Measures program. This figure comes from documentation released on Friday afternoon in response to a Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request I submitted on January 13, 2026.

The program, which is scheduled to begin on July 1, requires public EV chargers used in commercial transactions (i.e., those accepting payment) to register and pay a $150 per port annual fee. The fee is intended to fund inspections and testing to ensure accurate electricity metering, similar to how the state regulates gas pumps and grocery store scales.

Budget Breakdown

The bulk of the projected costs goes toward personnel:

• $2,262,550.91 — Salaries and benefits for Weights and Measures staff.
• $778,033.00 — Testing equipment, with major purchases planned in Year 1 and Year 3.
• $84,755.00 — Travel expenses over the five-year period.
• $245,345.30 — Training, administrative costs, and other miscellaneous items.

In its MPIA response, MDA explained that the $150 per-port fee was calculated by dividing the total program cost across an anticipated 2,500–3,500 chargers to be registered. (Note: The term “chargers” here likely refers to ports; the fees are based on “ports” which are individual charging outlets.) No details were provided on the methodology behind this 2,500–3,500 projection.

Comparison to Actual Infrastructure

For context, Maryland’s Department of Transportation EV Dashboard reported 5,293 total charging ports statewide as of January 31, 2026 (3,925 Level 2 and 1,368 DC Fast). This suggests that MDA’s figure may have underestimated the total number of ports that are to be registered, potentially leading to revisions if a higher number of EVSEs than anticipated need to be inspected.

Complaints About EVSE Accuracy and Billing

The MPIA request also sought data on formal complaints filed with Weights and Measures regarding EVSE meter accuracy, billing, or charging concerns from January 1, 2025, to the present.

MDA reported 22 formal complaints meeting these criteria. Notably, at least a dozen of these submissions since April 2025 originated from my own reports, which primarily flagged EV charging stations that bill exclusively by time (for example, per hour or per minute) rather than by kilowatt-hour. This practice can disadvantage drivers during slower charging sessions and violates method-of-sale requirements under NIST Handbook 44 standards.

When accounting for these advocacy-driven reports, the number of independent consumer complaints about suspected meter inaccuracy or other charging issues appears remarkably low. This raises a key question: Given the program’s projected $3.37 million five-year cost, is it proportionate to invest millions in widespread testing and enforcement to address a problem that, based on available data, has affected very few Maryland EV drivers?

This MPIA disclosure provides a glimpse into the program’s financial underpinnings and assumptions. As the debate continues over concerns about the Weights and Measures registration and inspection program, it’s important to consider whether high fees could deter new installations or lead operators to remove existing chargers, potentially conflicting with Maryland’s goal of expanding EV infrastructure to support 1.1 million zero-emission vehicles by 2030.