Access to reliable and affordable charging where people live is essential to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
Robert Borkowski is fortunate to have a garage at his home at Clarksburg Condominium II in order to charge his Tesla. But many of his neighbors in Montgomery County, Maryland do not have a private garage or parking space to install a personal EV charging station. As President of his condo association, Robert decided to look into installing shared charging stations for residents of his condo community who do not have a garage or dedicated parking.
Clarksburg Condominium II Community Buy-in
Getting approval for the project required a “yes” vote from two-thirds of the condo residents. The association sent out a survey to gauge interest among residents for EV charging. Supporters of the project held several community meetings to answer questions and address concerns. They set up a Frequently Asked Questions page on the association’s website about the proposed EV charging stations.
Maryland EVSE Incentives
Taking advantage of available EV charger incentives helped the association manage out of pocket expenses. Keeping the cost down helped persuade some residents who initially opposed the project because of budget concerns. The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) offers a 40% rebate for qualifying EVSE installations. The condo association also applied for incentives from their utility company. Potomac Edison offers up to $20,000 through their EV Driven Multifamily program. In total, the project cost around $60,000. Incentives from the state of Maryland and Potomac Edison amounted to around $44,000. The net cost to the association was around $16,000 after incentives.
The association had to pay the entire costs for the construction up front before receiving the rebates. The Montgomery County Green Bank worked with City First Enterprise’s Small Business Energy Savings Support Program on a $60,000 loan to help facilitate the electric vehicle charging project.
The condo association selected six JuiceBox PRO commercial grade EVSEs from EnelX for the project. These units are connected to a network with accompanying monthly service fees. This allows residents and visitors to pay for their kWh usage via a mobile app. The initial cost for residents is $0.20 per kWh. Visitors can charge for $0.30 per kWh.
The six 40A JuiceBox PRO commercial EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) are on a new dedicated 400A 3-Phase commercial service. The infrastructure includes capacity to install 11 additional EVSEs in the future.
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
A Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was held on July 23, 2022 to celebrate the grand opening of the community EV chargers. The celebration featured Condo Board President Robert Borkowski, Montgomery County Acting DEP Director Adriana Hochberg, Delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo representing District 15, Mark Zucca of Potomac Edison, Tom Deyo, CEO of Montgomery County Green Bank, JD Taylor, President of Tesla Club Maryland, Sheryl Ponds of Dai Technologies and Joyce Breiner, Executive Director of Poolesville Green.
Montgomery County DEP has published a case study of the Clarksburg Condominium II EVSE installation which can be found at MyGreenMontgomery.
Additional case studies for multi-unit dwelling EV charging installations in Maryland are located at: HOA Resources on MarylandEV. These case studies are useful to share with condo boards, HOAs, and property managers looking to install shared EV charging stations for residents.
