EV charging from a driver's perspective.
At around 5:15 PM on September 2, 2015 the first two Tesla owners to use the new Superchargers in Strasburg, VA plugged in together on the count of three.
This is the first Tesla Supercharger location in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Several more Superchargers are expected to be built along I-81 in Virginia later this year.
On a recent electric road trip through New England, we stopped by the Green Mountain Coffee Visitor Center & Café in Waterbury and plugged into a public charging station that they have available for visitors. Read More …
Watch bald eagles while you plug in and charge at Fisherman’s Park at Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River.
The Conowingo Hydroelectric Generating Station is capable of generating 572 MW of clean electricity and has been providing electricity to the region since 1928.
Unfortunately when I was there on August 26, 2015, the connectors would not release from the holsters of the ChargePoint charging station. I called customer service and they were not able to release it remotely either. A service ticket is pending.
Directions to Conowingo Dam Fisherman’s Park
2569 SHURES LANDING ROAD,
DARLINGTON, MD 21034
FROM THE NORTH:
1. Go south on US-1 crossing into Maryland
2. Turn LEFT onto SHURESVILLE ROAD (the first left immediately after crossing the dam) go .7 miles
3. Turn sharp LEFT onto Shures Landing Rd.
FROM THE SOUTH:
1. Go north on I-95 N
2. Keep RIGHT at the fork to go on MD-24 N (13.2m)
3. Turn RIGHT onto Shuresville Rd. (7 mi)
4. Turn sharp LEFT onto Shures Landing Rd.
Virginia Clean Cities, a nonprofit organization that has installed 21 DC fast chargers in the state so far, has opened an EV charging site at Main Street Station in downtown Richmond. The site includes a Fast Charger donated by Nissan, a Tesla High Power Wall Connector, and two Level 2 charging stations.
The city of Richmond plans to build a Welcome Center at Main Street Station.
The fee is $2.50 per 15 minutes for the DC fast charger. The other charging stations will cost 50 cents per 30 minutes.
Another DC Fast Charger with SAE Combo and CHAdeMO has opened in Maryland. This one is located at Royal Farms, 930 Cromwell Park Dr., Glen Burnie, MD 21061
This is the third Fast Charger installed under the Maryland EVIP grant announced in April, 2014. See this interactive map of all the planned EVIP locations.
Thanks to @MDVolt for the Tweet Tip that this station was live.
@PlugInSites
On a recent road trip to the heart of Amish country in Pennsylvania, we stopped by Millersville University to charge at the two SemaConnect stations located in the parking lot behind McNairy Library.
Millersville is a quiet town located south-west of Lancaster. We were there on a Sunday afternoon in the summer when school was not in session. The upper parking lot where the charging stations are located was empty. We passed the time by walking to the nearby pond and sitting on a bench to read and watch the swans dive for food.
A nice scenic road in this area is Pennsylvania Route 999 between Millersville and Washington Boro. Take Rt. 441 along the bank of the Susquehanna River to Columbia, PA and cross the old bridge to Wrightsville.
You may even see some Amish horse and buggies on the road. One trait that the horses and EVs share is that neither mode of transportation uses gasoline. Ever notice how an electric vehicle charging station is kind of like a hitching post? Happy trails.
Downtown Baltimore has eight new EV charging stations with plans to add about a dozen more. In May, the City Board of Estimates agreed to let a Baltimore-based company, Electric Vehicle Institute, Inc., install about 20 charging stations in city-owned parking garages. The agreement allows EVI to install and support the Level 2 charging stations for up to three years at no cost to the City. Now, those stations are beginning to appear. The photo above shows four of the EVI units installed in the Parking Authority of Baltimore City Redwood Street Garage.
The Baltimore City Department of Public Works is coordinating the project to place the stations where there is the most demand. See the six parking locations on the interactive map above. Some of these parking facilities have existing charging infrastructure that will be expanded. Other locations, such as the Marriott Garage at 405 W. Lombard St., will be getting their first charging stations. Initially, they all will be free to use.
New Charging Locations:
Marriott, 405 W. Lombard St. (4 new, 4 total)
Fleet & Eden, 501 S. Eden St.
On-street parking at Light St. and E. Barre St. in front of the Royal Sonesta.
Existing Locations that are Expanding:
Redwood Street, 11 S. Eutaw Street (4 new, 5 total)
Arena, 99 S. Howard St.
Water Street, 414 Water Street
The State of Maryland has flipped the switch on 16 EV charging station ports at 8 commuter rail stations this week. The dual-port Level 2 ChargePoint stations are located at Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) Light Rail and MARC Station parking lots. These plug-in electric vehicle charging sites are part of the PEV@MTA program which is funded by a $1,000,000 grant administered by the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA).
As of July, 2015, all of the Maryland MTA charging stations are free to use except for the ones at the BWI Rail Station which are free for the first 16 hours and then $2.00 per hour thereafter up to a maximum of $50.00.
The MTA has previously installed electric vehicle charging stations at 6 locations including the White Marsh Park and Ride (March 2011), the BWI-Marshall MARC Parking Garage (June 2011), the Mt. Washington and Falls Road Light Rail Stations (June 2012), and the Dorsey and Odenton MARC Stations (July 2012).
Milford Mill Metro Station Roman Frasier Ln, Pikesville, MD 21208
Lutherville Light Rail Station 157 W Ridgely Rd, Lutherville-Timonium, MD 21093
North Linthicum Light Rail Station 450 North Camp Meade Road, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090
Cromwell Light Rail Station 7378 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd, Glen Burnie, MD 21061
West Baltimore MARC Station 400 North Smallwood Street, Baltimore, MD 21223
Halethorpe MARC Station 5833 Southwestern Boulevard, Halethorpe, MD 21227
Muirkirk MARC Station 7012-B Muirkirk Road, Beltsville, MD 20705
Monocacy MARC Station 7800 Genstar Drive, Frederick, MD 21703
MTA is conducting a feasibility study for an additional 8 to 12 EV charging ports to be installed at 4 to 6 new locations that are scheduled to be installed by spring 2016.
(*Note: ChargePoint App says $50.00 maximum.) Post updated July 14, 2015.
If you are planning to plug in your electric vehicle at the BWI Rail Station to go away for a few days on Amtrak, read the fine print on the signs because you may be hit with a huge ChargePoint bill to use the “free” charging stations there.
Apparently, in an effort to discourage drivers from plugging in and leaving on overnight trips, the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) has limited the parking at the EV charging stations at the BWI MARC/Amtrak Rail Station to no more than 16 hours. Vehicles that are still plugged in after 16 hours will be billed $2.00 per hour via ChargePoint according to a small sign above each EV charging spot.
On Saturday July 11, 2015 around 11:00 AM, there was a Chevy Volt parked in one of the EV charging spots. The crawling display on the ChargePoint station indicated that it had been plugged in for about 53 1/2 hours or since 5:30 Thursday morning. The driver of the car had accumulated over 37 hours past the 16 hour limit and had ostensibly racked up $74.00 in fees. Mercifully for the Volt owner, there is a maximum of $50.00 according to the ChargePoint App.
One could argue that the fee charged after the 16 hour parking restriction shown on the sign is essentially an automated parking fine collection. But who sets the amount of the fine? Is it a county or state legislative body? Or is it some bureaucrat with access to the ChargePoint account at the Maryland Transit Administration who has the ability to program the fees?
Now maybe the Volt driver should have paid attention to the sign that read: 16 HR PARKING ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING ONLY. But if an ICE car had parked there instead, what would have been their penalty? Likely less than the $50.00 that the Volt driver was charged.
To put it in perspective, Howard County, Maryland passed a law against “ICEing” an EV charging spot. In response to a Public Information Act request from PlugInSites, the County revealed that only one citation had ever been issued and that fine was for $35.00. In other words, this charging station user, paid more money in penalties than all the fines ever collected in Howard County for ICE cars blocking charging stations.
Some have said, why not expand to have 120v outlets for long-term travelers. The fact is, that each of the charging stations here has two available ports, an L1 and an L2. Unfortunately, the stations were installed in front of five adjacent spots which only leaves room for five or maybe six cars able to access the ten ports. Some EV drivers have gone to this garage recently expecting to plug in while taking a multi-day trip on Amtrak and when confronted by the new 16 hour limit, parked in a regular parking space instead of plugging in. How is the Amtrak rail station different from charging at the Airport parking garage for a few days? MTA needs to rethink this policy and/or add more charging ports to meet the demand.
Comment via Twitter: @PlugInSites
MOM’s Organic Market in Frederick, Maryland is now lending out a Tesla CHAdeMO adapter so that Model S drivers can use the DC Fast Charger at their store. The idea to offer the adapter came from the founder of MOM’s, Scott Nash, who has been a great supporter of EV charging and drives an electric car.
To charge a Model S at the Frederick store, just ask for the adapter at the customer service desk inside the front door. I tested it out for a few minutes to see how it operated and everything worked fine. I plugged the adapter into the vehicle first, then attached the charger’s CHAdeMO connector to the adapter. Then I pressed the green start button on the charger cabinet. The screen displayed that it was in testing mode for a few seconds, then the green light on the vehicle’s charging port illuminated showing that it was charging. The 25 kW unit charged at a rate of 66 mi/hr.
MOM’s Organic Market has free EV charging stations at almost all of their stores. MOM’s says that the Woodbridge store, scheduled to open in August, 2015, will have four Level 2 stations and one DC Fast Charger. If you still drive a fossil fuel car, they will Terrapass your gas and buy carbon credits to offset the carbon dioxide emitted from your round trip to their store. But with so many plug in sites such as these, why not drive electric?
Ref: Tesla CHAdeMO Adapter Manual (PDF)