Understanding DCFC Usage Growth
For the past several years, I have been tracking the electricity usage at the meter of several fast charger sites in the vicinity of Columbia and Jessup, Maryland. My goal was to understand how quickly the utilization of fast charging is growing, and whether some EV charging locations are experiencing more growth than others.
The data that I have collected shows some interesting trends in DC fast charger utilization over time. To give you a sense of what I’ve found, I’ve created a chart that compares the daily electricity usage at five fast charger sites in the area. These chargers are located midway between Washington, DC and Baltimore and have been selected because they represent a mix of CCS/CHAdeMO fast charging sites and a Tesla Supercharger.
Each vertical bar in the chart represents a quarter year of the average daily kWh of electricity used per individual charging dispenser at each site. By analyzing this data, I can gauge the relative utilization between fast chargers located in the same general area. It is my hope that by sharing these findings with you, we can gain a better understanding of the growth of electric vehicle fast chargers and how they are being used in Maryland.
Charger Location Map
In October 2021, I released a Fast Charger Utilization Study about these chargers, followed by an update in January, 2022. With 18 months of data, we now have a more comprehensive understanding of how EV drivers are utilizing these fast chargers over time.
EVgo, Elkridge
The Gateway Overlook EVgo chargers, located around 4 minutes (1.4 miles) away from I-95 Exit 41, is the oldest of the five sites studied, with a opening date in late 2014. Although the equipment has been updated, and each unit can provide up to 50 kW, some drivers experienced slower charging speeds, and the average daily usage decreased when both units had issues during Q2, 2022. However, usage has increased since then, even though there are still reports of some issues with lower than expected power. This location also has a single J1772 Level 2 port, and one of the chargers has a Tesla connector that was added in late 2021. In January, 2023, the cost for fast charging at this location increased from $0.30 to $0.35 per minute.
Electrify America, Columbia
Moving on to the next charging site, the Electrify America charging station located at Walmart in Columbia, MD has been operating since November 16, 2019. This site has ten CCS dispensers, out of which two can deliver a maximum output of 350 kW and the rest are rated at 150 kW. Additionally, one of the chargers is equipped with a 50 kW CHAdeMO connector. The Columbia Electrify America site is located at a distance of 2.7 miles, roughly a 6-minute drive from I-95. It bills by the kilowatt-hour, costing $0.43 per kWh plus tax. As seen in the chart, there has been a steady increase in electricity usage at this location over the past 18 months, shown by the light green bars. Some of the usage is due to Electrify America’s partnerships with various automakers, providing their drivers with free charging on the network.
High’s, Jessup
Another fast-charging site in the study is the High’s convenience store located in Jessup. This station is easily accessible from the BW Parkway and is approximately 3.3 miles or a 7-minute drive from I-95 Exit 41. The site features two 50 kW ChargePoint stations that were installed in March 2020. In addition to the chargers, High’s convenience store is open 24 hours a day and offers gasoline and diesel fuel. Although both chargers were out of service during much of Q1, 2022, one unit came back online in Q2, 2022, and both have been fully functional since Q3. Usage of the chargers dropped during that period but has been slowly increasing again, as shown in the chart. The cost to charge at this location is $0.25 per kWh plus $0.17 per minute through the ChargePoint network.
BGE, HoCo
The BGE-owned charging stations are located behind a Howard County office building which is about 3 miles (7 minutes) away from Interstate 95. This site was commissioned on June 24, 2020, and includes six Level 2 charging ports, which are on the same meter as the two fast chargers. As a result, the electricity usage reported for the two fast chargers includes all the electricity used by the six Level 2 ports. Despite this advantage, this site is the least utilized among the five, and usage has remained relatively flat for the entire 18 months.
The cost to use these BGE fast chargers is $0.32 per kWh plus 6% tax via Shell Recharge. The charging stations are part of a five-year EV charging pilot program approved by the Maryland Public Service Commission, which allows the utility to own and operate a limited number of public charging stations if they are placed on local, state, or federal government property.
According to a report by BGE submitted to the Maryland Public Service Commission, this site has experienced significant financial losses as revenue from EV drivers failed to cover the cost of electricity. The most recent six-month reporting cycle generated only $1,285.04 in revenue but incurred an electricity bill of $4,613.01, resulting in a loss of $3,327.97. The total losses since the site opened amount to $12,465.73.
The utilities are losing a ton of money on the chargers at this point in time. How do they make that up? They will make that up through a subsidy paid by ratepayers in the future.
Maryland PSC Chairman Jason Stanek in briefing to the House Economic Matters Committee Jan. 24, 2023
Tesla, Hanover
The Hanover Supercharger, located at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve parking garage, has been in operation since November 14, 2019. The charging site offers eight stalls, each capable of delivering up to 72 kW. As indicated by the chart, the Hanover Supercharger has the highest utilization of all five charging sites by far. Each Hanover, MD Tesla Supercharger stall delivers more than twice the amount of electricity than the next most utilized station here which is Electrify America in Columbia. The chart shows consistent, steady growth in usage. It recent months, all eight stalls have been occupied at peak times and occasionally there is a queue waiting to charge.
Conclusion
Based on the analysis of electric usage, the Electrify America chargers in Columbia are the most utilized non-Tesla site with an average of 161 kWh per port, per day. The EVgo chargers in Elkridge are the second most utilized at an average of 80 kWh per charger, which is about half of the EA amount. The ChargePoint chargers at the High’s store have much lower usage at an average of 27 kWh per stall in Q4. This site had higher utilization a year ago but technical issues caused the chargers to be unavailable for an extended period and it hasn’t quite recovered since.
Compared to the other sites examined, the BGE chargers at the Ascend One/Howard County Office Building have not performed well. DCFC-1 only had 0.33 charges per day (once every 3 days), while DCFC-2 had even lower usage with 0.21 uses per day (every 5 days). Although these chargers did not suffer from extended outages, they have struggled to show any significant growth in usage over time and remain the lowest utilized among the five sites.
What other charging data would you like to see explored? Put your thoughts in the comments below.
How does BGE, an actual ELECTRIC company, end up paying over $1/kWh for their electricity? Something is fishy there – either they are rolling in some amortized station costs, or they are inflating the price they are “charging” themselves for the electricity. I wonder how this average cost/kWh compares to the other Maryland utilities that are running stations under this program.
I would like to get information on the usage of level 2 ChargePoint/BGE chargers in Howard County. There are a lot of “free” chargers and was just curious how much they are costing tax payers, and which have higher usage. We could throw in the paid ones too if the information is available to see how much they are making.
As for DCFC, would be interesting to expand to a couple other superchargers like the one on 6900 Andersons Wy, Laurel, MD 20707 since its right off 95, its really convenient location. The Hanover location at 72kw is too slow for modern charging standards and should be upgraded.