Category: Featured Plug In Site

The Giant store at 8805 Centre Park Dr, Columbia, Maryland now has a pair of electric vehicle charging stations. The stations were installed by Volta Charging.

Free Charging – Supported by Advertising

These free EV charging stations are subsidized by selling advertising messages that are displayed on the large digital screens on each unit. Volta claims to be the world’s most highly used EV charging network.

Volta says their business model isn’t to make money from selling electricity to EV drivers. Instead, Volta partners with highly-visited retail locations such as grocery stores and retail centers where they can display advertising messages.

The Mall in Columbia, operated by Brookfield Properties, had the first Volta charging stations in Howard County. The Giant store at 7200 Cradlerock Way in Columbia got their own Volta stations a few months ago. White Marsh Mall in northern Baltimore County has eight Volta charging stations. Towson Town Center also has Volta charging.

Expect to see more of these free charging stations showing up at Giant stores in the coming months.

The Meadowood Regional Park in Lutherville, Maryland now has public electric vehicle charging stations. The BGE EVsmart stations were operational and in use by a Chevy Bolt EV on Saturday, January 30, 2021. Two dual-port Level 2 charging stations can charge four vehicles at once. The Meadowood Regional Park EV charging stations are located in the south east corner of the parking area just off of Falls Road.

Meadowood Regional Park is located at Falls Road and Greenspring Valley Road just north of the Baltimore Beltway (I-695) and the Jones Falls Expressway (I-83). Map link

According to the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks, Meadowood Regional Park provides a variety of outdoor recreational facilities including:

• Six athletic fields (four lighted, one artificial turf)
• Three picnic pavilions
• Playground
• A .8-mile paved walking path, with upper and lower sections measuring .4 miles each.

There are a number of take-out food establishments nearby at Green Spring Station, so you can grab a meal and enjoy a picnic while you charge.

The fee to use the Level 2 charging stations is $0.18 per kWh including 6% Maryland sales tax. The fees are subject to change with the approval of the Maryland Public Service Commission which regulates the utilities. Payment is via a Greenlots account.

See also: BGE Fast Chargers at Glenwood Library in Howard County

Six Level 2 Ports

A public charging site is open at the Anne Arundel County Public Library at 269 Hillsmere Drive, Annapolis, MD. The BGE EVsmart utility owned and operated charging stations are energized as of January 20, 2021. There are two DC Fast Chargers and six Level 2 ports along the east edge of the parking lot. [map link]

Greenlots Network

The BGE fast chargers have a fee of $0.34 per kWh. The Level 2 charging costs $0.18 per kWh. Those fees are subject to change with the approval of the Maryland Public Service Commission which regulates the utilities. Payment is via a Greenlots account.

Two CCS/CHAdeMO Fast Chargers

The two 50 kW fast chargers are Efacec QC 45 units that are also used in some other BGE installations such as Westminster and Ellicott City. Having multiple fast chargers will help bolster EV drivers’ confidence. If one fast charger is occupied or inoperable, there’s another fast charger for back up.

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Utility owned and operated public charging stations are now open at the Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland. The BGE EVsmart stations are operational as of January 8, 2021. Two DC Fast Chargers and six Level 2 ports are located in the north west corner of Lot C on the main campus along Little Patuxent Parkway. [map link]

Two CCS/CHAdeMO Fast Chargers

The two 50 kW Fast Chargers are Efacec QC 45 units that are also used in some other BGE installations such as Westminster and Ellicott City. Having multiple fast chargers will help bolster EV drivers’ confidence. If one fast charger is occupied or inoperable, there should be another fast charger to fall back on.

On Greenlots Network

The fee to use these Fast Chargers is $0.34 per kWh. The Level 2 costs $0.18 per kWh. The fees are subject to change with the approval of the Maryland Public Service Commission which regulates the utilities. Payment is made via a Greenlots account.

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Tesla Supercharging Station at Wawa

The Rehoboth Beach area now has its second Tesla Supercharger. An eight stall, 250 kW (V3) Supercharging station just opened at the Wawa convenience store by the intersection of Coastal Hwy and Rehoboth Ave. Ext. Map Link

This Supercharger is located less than four miles from the Lewes, DE Supercharger that opened about three years ago. The Lewes Supercharger is an eight stall station also located in the lot of a Wawa store. It’s a 150 kW powered station as compared to the 250 kW at the newer one in Rehoboth.

Why did Tesla build two Superchargers so close together? We don’t know. But consider this, the Wawa chain has three stores in that stretch of Coastal Highway that sell gasoline. There are at least six other gas stations in that section. Ultimately, electric vehicle charging stations will become ubiquitous. Areas like the beach, where tourists drive beyond the range of the charging station in their home, will be among the first areas that need to support a higher volume of people that need fast charging.

Rehoboth Beach already had many Level 2 EV charging stations to help support EV drivers visiting from out of town. There are two high-amp L2 stations at Surfside Park that were proposed in 2014 by the University of Delaware as part of a statewide network of EV charging stations in Delaware. There are also Level 2 charging stations at the three Tanger Outlets locations in Rehoboth Beach that were installed in 2015.

Version 3 Tesla Superchargers in the Delmarva

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Potomac Edison Charging Stations Open in Hancock

Two new CCS/CHAdeMO Fast Chargers owned and operated by Potomac Edison opened today in Hancock, Maryland. The chargers are located in the parking area of Joseph Hancock, Jr. Primitive Park on Main Street. The two ChargePoint Express 250 Fast Chargers can deliver 62.5 – 125 kW based on power sharing. The cost is $0.30 per kWh and is set based on approval of the Maryland Public Service Commission which regulates the utilities.

Potomac Edison opened their first DC Fast Charger last week at the Deep Creek Visitors Center in McHenry, MD. We charged there on Saturday, January 2nd using a Tesla CHAdeMO adapter. Users can pay using a ChargePoint RFID card or App. The units are wrapped in blue Potomac Edison “EVDRIVEN” branding and the URL to their EV website is displayed on the front. A blue and white sign designates the area as “electric vehicle parking only while charging.”

Adds to Existing DC Fast Charging in Town

Hancock already has two Fast Chargers located a few blocks away at the Western Maryland Rail Trail Parking Lot. Those chargers are operated by EVI and were installed about a year ago with funding help from the Maryland Energy Administration’s Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Program. Those chargers are 50 kW and bill users with a flat fee plus by the minute rather than by the kWh.

More Fast Chargers Planned for Western Maryland

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Utility-Owned Public Charging Stations Open in Western Maryland

EV drivers have been waiting many years for CCS and CHAdeMO Fast Chargers to come to Garrett County, Maryland. In April, 2014, the Maryland Attorney General announced a $1 million grant program to build a statewide network of DC Fast Chargers that was supposed to extend from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore. Unfortunately, the western portion never materialized.

In January, 2019, the Maryland Public Service Commission issued Order No. 88997 which allowed a pilot program of utility owned and operated public EV charging stations under the condition that they are located on property owned, leased or occupied by a state, county, or municipal government.

Potomac Edison has now opened their first Fast Chargers along with a Level 2 station at the Deep Creek Visitors Center in McHenry, MD. The two ChargePoint units are rated to share 125 kW of power between them. We successfully charged using a CHAdeMO to Tesla adapter on one of them on Saturday, January 2nd. While in the area, we spotted four other Teslas in and around McHenry. Teslas need a CHAdeMO adapter sold by Tesla or perhaps one of the new third party CCS adapters to use these ChargePoint units. Maybe these fast chargers will encourage drivers of Chevy Bolts and other EVs with CCS or CHAdeMO plugs to make the trek to Western Maryland in their electric cars.

EV Tourism

Garrett County has the second lowest adoption of electric vehicles in Maryland according to an analysis of Plug-In Vehicle Adoption. Garrett County has 15 all-electric and 5 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles registered according to the latest data from the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration. This means that most of the utilization of the fast chargers in McHenry will probably be from tourists and other visitors.

More Public Fast Chargers Planned

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ChargePoint Station is Now Provisioned

An electric vehicle charging station located at Blandair Regional Park in Columbia, Maryland is back in service after a long period waiting to be provisioned on the network. The ChargePoint CT4000, dual-port Level 2 station was first powered on in November, 2019. At the time, the display read, “Station not provisioned on ChargePoint. Grace sessions remaining 9.”

Each time someone plugged in, the remaining number of grace sessions was one less until all 10 grace sessions were used up and the station became disabled in early 2020. I told Howard County officials that the charging station was out of service and followed up several times. Summer and fall came and went and the station remained offline.

Sometime in the past few weeks, the unit was finally registered on the ChargePoint network and EV drivers can now use it. The cost is free as of now. The site still needs signs that reserve the spots for EV charging in accordance with the Howard County anti-ICEing ordinance.

There are two more dual-port EV charging stations in an area that is still under construction in the western portion of the park. Those stations seem to be already provisioned but are inaccessible until construction is finished.

So, drive your Leaf or other EV to the baseball fields of Blandair Park, you now have a place to charge!

New V3 Tesla Supercharger at Sheetz on Venture Drive

A new Tesla Supercharger opened this week in the parking lot of the Sheetz on Venture Drive, Hagerstown, Maryland. There are eight stalls on the south side of the building near the drive-thru pickup window. This is a 250 kW (V3) Supercharging station which can charge significantly faster on newer Teslas.

The Hagerstown, MD – Venture Drive Supercharger is just off of I-70, one exit west of the original Hagerstown Supercharger that opened on January 23, 2014 at the Premium Outlets. Map

Hagerstown on Original Coast-to-Coast Supercharger Route

The Premium Outlets location was a part of the first cross country Supercharger route completed in early 2014. A team from Tesla marked the completion of the route shortly after the original Hagerstown Supercharger opened by setting a Guinness World Record for the lowest charging time for an EV traveling across the United States. The Tesla Cross Country Rally team were welcomed in the wee hours of Feb. 2, 2014 by a small contingent of Tesla owners when they stopped at the Hagerstown Premium Outlets to charge.

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Update Feb. 22, 2021: Open

Opening Soon – Five Stalls, up to 250 kW

A new Royal Farms store opening soon in the Violetville neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore will have five V3 Tesla Supercharger stalls. The new location is at 1202 S Caton Ave., Baltimore, MD. This is just off I-95 Exit 50B.

This Tesla Supercharger location is about eight miles from the Boston Street Supercharger that opened a couple weeks ago in the Canton neighborhood. The first Baltimore Tesla Supercharger opened in McHenry Row on October 23, 2018.

Other Local Superchargers That Opened in 2020

Listed below are the sites that have opened in the Washington, DC and Baltimore area so far this year.

• Ashburn, VA 8 stalls, 250 kW at Harris Teeter (February)
• Washington, DC – Wisconsin Ave NW– 8 stalls, 72 kW at Safeway (March)
• Easton, MD 8 stalls, 250 kW at Royal Farms (May)
• Reston, VA 8 stalls, 250 kW at Reston Station (June)
• White Marsh, MD 8 stalls, 250 kW at Royal Farms (June)
• Chantilly, VA 8 stalls, 250 kW at Royal Farms (July)
• Vienna, VA 8 stalls, 250 kW at Wawa (July)
• Baltimore, MD – Boston Street – 12 stalls, 250 kW at Harris Teeter (October)

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