There is a Level 2 charging station available to the public in historic downtown Middletown, Maryland. The Middletown EV charging station is a dual-port ChargePoint and is located in the municipal parking lot at 119 Washington, Street.
The Middletown EV charging station is part of the Potomac Edison owned and operated EV charging network. The utility operates charging stations as far west as Deep Creek Lake where they have two DC fast chargers at the Visitor Center.
The slogan for Main Street Middletown is, “Where Charm and History Meet.” There is plenty of history to explore in Middletown and the Main Street has restaurants and ice cream to cool off while charging your car.
Let us know if you get out to Middletown and use the charging station there.
Traveling through Vermont this summer, we spotted a blue and white EV charging wayfinding sign along State Route VT-107 between Bethel and Royalton. This particular sign was remarkable because it had “LEVEL 1” printed on it. We did a U-turn and pulled into the Royalton Park & Ride lot to investigate.
The parking lot was full of the “EV LEVEL 1” signs attached to light posts. Beneath each sign was a 120V outlet about waist high on the light poles. In total there were 16 power outlets for EV charging in the lot.
The Royalton Park & Ride lot opened in November, 2020 and cost about $834,000 to construct. The winning bidder, L & M Service Contractors, budgeted $158.80 for each Level 1 electric vehicle outlet according to a Vermont Agency of Transportation Bid Results document. Most of the other bids were around $1,000 per outlet with $1,250 being the highest. It’s hard to tell from the bid results exactly what the specifications were for installing the outlets.
A VTrans map of Vermont Park & Ride lots shows there are other locations with Level 1 EV charging outlets. Randolph has seven Level 1 outlets, Colchester has 11 Level 1 outlets and Middlesex has two Level 2 charging stations in its Park & Ride lot.
Maryland announced that funding was awarded for 74 charging stations with 145 Level 2 ports at 24 locations in the first of three rounds of the Charge Ahead Grant program (CAGP). PlugInSites has gathered information about the workplace charging locations and which companies won the awards. We’ve compiled the info into the accompanying map and chart.
Funding for the Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program is provided from the “Appendix D” portion of the Volkswagen diesel settlement. Maryland was allocated about $75.6 million to use on projects to reduce the effect of diesel emissions from the transportation sector. Up to 15% ($11.3 million) of Maryland’s Volkswagen Mitigation Plan funding can be used for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
CAGP Round One Uses $642,942 in Volkswagen Diesel Settlement Funds
Maryland is releasing the funding in three rounds of grants. The first round includes $642,942 for Level 2 workplace charging. Here is the list of awardees along with the total grant funding they were approved for.
$234,000 Electric Vehicle Institute (EVI) $117,000 Under Armour $117,000 Maryland DGS $86,665 WSSC Water $45,000 MDOT $36,000 Prince George’s County $4,500 Fork United Methodist Church $2,777 Town of Thurmont
Funding Award Chart
The chart below details the applicants’ locations, the number of L2 charging ports at the site, the total cost of each site, and approved grant funding amounts.
Caledonia State Park is located along US 30 in Pennsylvania between Chambersburg and Gettysburg. The 1,125-acre park is open every day of the year from sunrise to sunset.
About a year ago, the park installed two ClipperCreek electric vehicle charging stations. The 50 Amp Level 2 stations are available to the public and are located in parking lot #2 near the picnic area restrooms.
Hiking, Camping and Other Activities
Caledonia State Park has camping, swimming and picnic tables. The famous Appalachian Trail traverses the park and you may even see people hiking through with backpacks on their journey from Georgia to Maine. There are 10 miles of hiking trails within the 1,125-acre park for folks who may not be so adventurous.
The park is also home of the Thaddeus Stevens Blacksmith Shop. The shop and Iron Furnace were part of the Caledonia Iron Works which operated between 1837 and 1895.
The EV charging stations in Caledonia State Park are part of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources initiative to install charging equipment at more than 40 state parks and forests in the state to help improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gases.
Similar EV charging programs are underway at state parks in West Virginia and Delaware.
The Maryland Clean Energy Center held a webinar this week to discuss how new technology is affecting transportation issues in Maryland. The discussion included electric vehicle charging infrastructure, electrifying fleets, electric school buses and the role of hydrogen fuel in long-haul trucking.
Delegate Brooke Lierman, a member of the House Environment and Transportation Committee, moderated the discussion. Panelists include Delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo, also a member of the Environment and Transportation Committee and the Chair of the Motor Vehicle and Transportation Subcommittee.
Other panelists include Korey Neal, President of K. Neal Truck and Bus Center; Kristy Groncki, Manager, Strategic Programs for BGE; Joseph Alfred, CEO of Ally Power Inc.; and Swami Venkat, Partner, CFO Advisory Practice Leader – Global Consulting Solutions at CohnReznick.
Below is a recording of the MCEC webinar, Driving Change: The Future of Transportation.
This MCEC webinar is part of their Connecting to the Energy Economy Speaker Series.
A Maryland Right-to-Charge law for homeowners and condo residents goes into effect today, October 1, 2021.
Maryland joins eight other states including Virginia and New York to prohibit HOAs and condo boards from denying permission for a homeowner to install an electric vehicle charging station within certain guidelines. It would make void and unenforceable any covenants or restrictions of a condominium or homeowners association if they prohibit or unreasonably restrict the installation or use of electric vehicle recharging equipment in an owner’s deeded or designated parking space.
This bill gives homeowners the right to install a charging station in their parking spot as long as they pay for the costs of installation, maintenance, electricity and subsequent removal upon moving. Many people in Maryland live in housing that is governed by an HOA or condo board. Addressing the issue of charging at multi-family units is important to achieve the full potential of electric vehicle adoption in the state.
Recently, Maryland announced that funding was awarded for 36 new public DC fast chargers at 13 locations. PlugInSites has learned a bit more about which companies won the awards and how many stations each charging provider will be operating.
Funding From VW Settlement
The funding comes from the Volkswagen diesel settlement. Maryland was allocated approximately $75.6 million to use on projects to reduce the effect of diesel emissions from the transportation sector. Up to 15% ($11.3 million) of Maryland’s Volkswagen Mitigation Plan funding can be used for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Maryland decided to release the funding in three rounds of public-private partnership grants. The first round is for $3.7 million for Level 2 workplace charging and DC fast chargers along highways.
Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program
The Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program (ECGP) is for fast charging stations along Alternative Fuel Corridors that have been designated by the Federal Highway Administration. The Alternative Fuel Corridors for electric vehicles include US Routes 50 and 301 on the Eastern Shore and I-68 / I-70 in Western Maryland.
The chart below details the applicants’ locations, number of chargers and funding amounts. EVgo was awarded $950,500 in grants for 22 fast chargers at 5 locations. Blink got $1,114,832 to install 8 chargers at 4 sites. An independent gas station in Annapolis, a gun store in Cumberland and Electric Vehicle Institute (EVI) were awarded funding for 2 chargers each. EVGateway got $315,840 to install 4 chargers at Ashley Homestore in Lexington Park. Here is a link to a map of all the ECGP locations for round one of the program.
A Tesla Supercharger is now open at the Wawa store at 3166 Solomons Island Rd, Edgewater, Maryland.
The Edgewater, MD Supercharger has eight charging stalls rated at 250 kW max. They are located in the parking lot on the north side of the Wawa store.
The Edgewater Supercharger is about four miles south of the very popular Annapolis Supercharger. Perhaps some of the Tesla drivers will make the trek down Rt. 2/Solomons Island Rd to use the faster 250 kW Version 3 (V3) Superchargers at the Wawa. Annapolis has Version 2 Superchargers (150 kW) which are not quite as fast.
This Supercharger took over six months to complete from the time that equipment first appeared on at the site in March. This is longer than it usually takes and that could be due to a variety of factors that we don’t know.
We are watching a number of other Tesla Superchargers that are currently under construction in the greater Washington, DC area. These include: Laurel, MD – Van Dusen Road; Aberdeen, MD – Churchville Road; Abingdon, MD; Winchester, VA; and Bealeton, VA.
Last night the New Castle County Council in Delaware introduced an EV Capable ordinance to ensure that new housing units have the capability to easily and more cost-effectively install electric vehicle service equipment in the future. Ordinance 21-116, sponsored by Councilperson Dee Durham, would require conduit and sufficient physical space in the electrical panel to accommodate a branch circuit for EV charging in new residential construction.
The ordinance cites Howard and Montgomery Counties in Maryland as locations that already require new residential construction to be EV-Ready.
Ordinance Would Leave Innocent EV Drivers Vulnerable to Fines
The Frederick County Council introduced a bill last night that, if passed, will leave electric vehicle drivers vulnerable to steep fines at EV charging stations.
According to the text of the bill, “A person may not stop, stand, or park a plug-in vehicle in a plug-in vehicle parking space if the vehicle is not connected to the charging equipment.”
This sounds reasonable in theory. Nobody should park at a charging station unless they intend to use it. But there’s a problem when you try to codify this into the sharply defined confines of the law.
What happens if you plug in and someone comes along while you’re away and unplugs your vehicle? Then you’re in violation of a Class C offense of Section 1-1-9 of the Frederick County Code, punishable by a fine of between $100 and $250.
The person who unplugged you? Where is the law to prohibit their behavior? Apparently there is no law against unplugging an electric vehicle without the permission of the owner.* This will be a boon for the haters. Why roll coal on the “greenies” when they can just unplug their cars at the charging station and laugh when they get a ticket?
No More Charger Sharing
The Frederick County bill would make it illegal to share one charging station between two parking spaces. Charger sharing allows more efficient use of charging infrastructure. But under the “must be connected” language in the Frederick County bill, one of the two vehicles would be in violation if in a designated charging space and not plugged in.
Penalizes the Victim of Vandalism
Unfortunately another EV driver or a miscreant could unplug your car. This would immediately make you go from legally parked to being in violation of the proposed Frederick ordinance, through no fault of your own.
