EV Charging Stations Proposed for Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Lanny

DOLLES
On May 5, 2014, Professor Willett Kempton of the University of Delaware presented a proposal to locate electric vehicle charging stations in Rehoboth Beach to the city commissioners. The officials agreed to consider the proposal which intrigued some of the commissioners although some of them balked at the idea. The commissioners asked City Manager Sharon Lynn to investigate possible locations for the charging stations.

Dr. Kempton is leading a program in partnership with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) to place a number of EV charging stations throughout the state at 50 mile intervals. DNREC is providing the funding and UD is implementing it. Kempton’s group has identified strategic geographic locations to place the charging stations based on analysis of the travel capabilities of limited range EVs such as the Nissan Leaf.
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Here is the PDF of the entire slide deck from the presentation on May 5, 2014.

The network is being designed to primarily support EV travel within the state with a secondary purpose as a destination charge facility. The goal is to have stations within 50 miles of each other with easy on/off access to highways to enable en-route charging throughout the entire state.

The funding will be provided by an $80,000 state grant and he is asking for help to identify a suitable location within the city of Rehoboth Beach and perhaps some small effort towards installation. These will be 16-kilowatt stations according to several news reports.

Listen to the presentation and comments by the city commissioners on this audio recording, starting at 0:16:00. The objections seemed to be based on the perception that there are very few plug in vehicles. Others thought that public funds should not be used to provide charging facilities and that they should be supplied by private businesses, such as hotels, to attract customers. Mayor Sam Cooper said, “I’m agnostic on electric cars. If you want one, fine, but you got to know what you are buying. You can’t expect to be bailed out by the city of Rehoboth Beach. If there is a demand, it’s ripe for some private entity to do it.”

Some of the city leaders seem to think that nobody travels there in an electric car. I’ve driven there twice from the Washington, DC area and have sent the Mayor, Commissioners and City Manager an email letting them know that I do visit Rehoboth Beach in an electric car and that I support the UD/DNREC proposal to install a couple of high-power (16 kW) Level 2 charging stations in town. Here is contact info for the Rehoboth Beach Mayor, Board of Commissioners and the City Manager.

UPDATE: The charging stations are now installed and operational. August, 2015

Element Arundel Mills

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Featured Plug In Site – Maryland’s first public charging station?

Element Arundel Mills

This charging station is located behind the Element Hotel near Arundel Mills at 7522 Teague Road, Hanover, MD. It is possibly the “first” public charging station in the state of Maryland judging by the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center database. It is assigned ID: 36363 which is the lowest ID number of all the charging stations listed for Maryland. That means it was likely the first charging station added to the database that is located in Maryland.

Element Arundel Mills Level 1

A unique aspect of this ChargePoint station is that it is 120V Level 1 only. Notice in the photo that there is no J-1772 connector holster on this unit, only the door flap for the 120V outlet. This is the first and only one I’ve seen like this.

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The EV-COMUTE Act Would Allow Federal Workplace Charging

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Many plug in vehicle drivers in the Washington, DC area work at federal facilities that don’t allow EV charging. The existing policy is based on a GAO interpretation of law that essentially bans charging stations for employees and contractors, even if they are willing to pay for the equipment and electricity. Congress passed legislation in 2012 to allow the Architect of the Capitol to install charging stations in congressional parking areas but ignored the rest of the federal workforce. Enter the EV-COMUTE Act.

On May 9th, 2014 U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren along with Reps. Thomas Massie, Anna G. Eshoo, and Rob Woodall introduced HR 4645, that would allow federal agencies to construct EV charging stations for employees with electric vehicles at no cost to the taxpayer. The EV-COMUTE Act (Electric Vehicle Charging Offers Modern Utility Terminals for Employees Act) is modeled after the program put in place at the U.S. Capitol for commuters to pay a fee to use the charging stations that offsets the costs for both the construction and use of the stations.

Rep. Lofgren said, “I myself drive an electric car and I know they are an important part of improving efficiency and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. There’s really no reason why government employees shouldn’t be able to pay to charge their vehicles while they work and that’s what this straightforward bill does.”

“The EV-COMUTE Act takes a successful clean energy initiative in place at the U.S. Capitol and expands it to federal agencies nationwide, allowing commuters to plug in their electric vehicles at work for a small fee,” said Rep. Eshoo. “As the nation’s largest employer, the federal government should lead by example in offering workplace charging. Silicon Valley is home to thousands of electric vehicle owners, yet the more than 5,000 federal employees in my congressional district have no access to charging facilities at work because of a quirk in existing law.”

Rep. Massie, an MIT graduate who uses solar power at his Kentucky home and drives an electric car daily in Washington DC, said, “In my personal and public life, I consistently support an all-of-the-above energy strategy for the United States. I’m proud to cosponsor this legislation because it will expand transportation options for many Americans at no cost to taxpayers.” Rep. Massie serves on both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

Federal employees currently don’t have access to use of paid charging stations at their workplace parking facilities. In fact, agencies are currently prohibited from constructing or even entering into contracts with charging service providers under current law. The EV-COMUTE bill would allow federal agencies to construct and operate battery recharging stations in parking areas used by federal employees. Specifically, the bill would:

  • Authorize federal agencies to maintain on a reimbursable basis a battery recharging station for the use of privately owned vehicles of federal employees and others authorized to park at federal facilities.
  • Authorize agencies to enter into contracts with vendors to construct, operate and maintain battery recharging stations.
  • Authorize agencies to charge appropriate fees to individuals who use the charging stations to ensure the recovery of costs incurred for the installation, construction, operation and maintenance of the stations.

As of May 29, 2014, the bill has been introduced and referred to committee. Rep. Lofgren is trying to build support and gather cosponsors in order to move this bill forward.

Maryland Network of EV Fast Charging Stations Announced

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Maryland network fast charger announcement
Fulton, MD (April 24, 2014)

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced a public-private grant program to build a statewide network of DC Fast Chargers for electric vehicles.

The specific locations for the charging stations are yet to be determined but are expected to stretch from Garrett County to Ocean City to Southern Maryland and beyond. In the coming months, the $1 million grant program will be advertised to private sector businesses and will be administered and monitored by the Maryland Energy Administration. The departments of the Environment and Transportation participated in the development of this innovative program.

Maryland network fast charger map

“Electric vehicles are the wave of the future and this network will position Maryland as a leader in the use of fast-charge technology,” said Attorney General Gansler. “This initiative will enable current and future EV owners to use their cars more often, foster job growth in Maryland, keep Maryland money in Maryland and help achieve Maryland’s long-term air quality goals by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

A General Motors manufacturing facility in Baltimore County produces the electric drive motors for the Chevrolet Spark EV, currently only for out-of-state sale. The development of these fast-charging stations will help encourage a bigger EV market in Maryland. Fifteen other EV models, such as the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf and the Ford Focus EV, are currently sold in Maryland.

Maryland would be among the first Eastern states to introduce DC Fast Charger stations to facilitate highway travel. The stations, which must be located near major highways, will enable some electric vehicles to reach an 80% charge in less than 30 minutes. Currently, Maryland EV owners charge their cars overnight at home or use a growing network of Level 2 charging stations provided at workplaces, commercial locations or retail businesses, which take several hours to fully charge.

At last count, an estimated 3,000 plug in vehicles were registered in Maryland. While the sale and use of electric cars has increased in recent years, Maryland has set a goal of 60,000 electric vehicles in the state by 2020 — the equivalent of 2.3 percent of all registered passenger vehicles in Maryland.

The money for the project was secured from a settlement with American Electric Power Service Corp., over violations of the Clean Air Act. The legal case was brought by Attorney General Gansler, the Maryland Department of the Environment, multiple other states, the federal government and 13 citizen groups.