This BGE Glenwood Library EV charging station has two 50 kW Tritium DC fast chargers and three dual-port Level 2 EVSEs. It is located in the parking lot of the Glenwood Branch of the Howard County Library in Glenwood, MD. The library is about two miles south of I-70 on Rt 97. In addition to the library and the Gary J. Arthur Community Center, the site has access to the Howard County Western Regional Park. Restrooms are available at the library and in the park. There are two restaurants within a half mile. Walker’s Tap and Table and Ragu NY Pizza & Italian Kitchen are about a 7 minute walk to the south. There are no other amenities of note near this rural charging site. The park does have ample walking trails to pass the time and stretch your legs.
06/26/2020 – Opened 2350 Roxbury Mills Rd, Glenwood, MD map
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.
It’s been over three years since the Maryland Public Service Commission approved an EV charging pilot that allows the utilities to use ratepayer funds to own and operate public charging stations. When they petitioned for approval of the pilot, my utility, BGE, had assured regulators that their public EV charging stations would be highly reliable and that they would respond quickly to resolve outages and issues. How are they doing in that regard? I wanted quantitative data to find out.
95% to 99% uptime is the range described in the utilities’ semi-annual EV charging reports. That seems quite optimistic compared to what other EV drivers and I have experienced. The only way to actually find out the ground truth is to go out and visit the chargers. I chose to evaluate all the utility-owned fast chargers in the BGE service territory.
Professor David Rempel of the University of California, Berkeley recently published a study on the reliability of the public (non-Tesla) electric vehicle fast chargers in the San Francisco Bay Area. The results showed that more than a quarter of the chargers in the Bay Area were not functioning or had a design failure. The non-functioning stations suffered from non-responsive displays, payment system failures, initiation failures, network failures, or damaged connectors.
The Berkeley study utilized a group of volunteer EV drivers who visited the chargers and tested each one by plugging into their EV and attempting to charge for two minutes. The methods used in the Berkeley study inspired the procedure that I used to test the fast chargers in Maryland.
Procedure
Between August 28 and September 6, 2022, I tested all 69 public fast chargers that are owned and operated by BGE. I created a map of the charger locations and divided the locations into manageable groups that I could visit and evaluate over a number of days.
I drove to each site and worked through a checklist of tasks to test each fast charger. First I took a series of photos of the chargers. Then I recorded the Station ID, model and serial number of each unit. I visually inspected the equipment including the display, cables and connectors for damage. I documented the online status of the charger in the Shell Recharge mobile app. Then I attempted to initiate a charge via the app. If the unit began charging, I let it run for two minutes. Meanwhile I took note of the charging speed and made sure that the charger was operating as expected. After two minutes, I’d stop the charge and then attempt to initiate a charge using the RFID card reader.
If a charging session failed, I reported it to Shell Recharge customer service. This should have alerted BGE of the specific chargers that were having issues. In many instances, when I reported the issue, Shell Recharge responded that a service ticket had previously been created.
Results
A charger was classified as fully functional if it authorized via the Shell Recharge app (or started free), initiated a charge, and maintained the expected charging speed for two minutes.
71% (49) of the BGE fast chargers were fully functional as defined above.
14.5% (10) of the chargers were completely inoperable.
2.9% (2) consistently displayed error codes and would not charge.
4.4% (3) were offline and did not respond via the app. However, these did initiate via a tap of a Shell Recharge RFID card. Most drivers however do not carry a Shell Recharge card.
7.2% (5) initiated a charge but delivered very low power, around 15 kW. That is a fraction of the 50 kW rated power for those stations.
BGE EVsmart Charging Station at Michael E. Busch Annapolis Library
Two years after being commissioned, the BGE fast charger at the Michael E. Busch Library in Annapolis has been replaced.
The original Efacec QC45 DC fast charger was swapped with a Model L3S-50-480-01-001 from BTC Power and is now energized and ready for EV drivers.
The charging stations at the library include four Level 2 connectors and are part of the BGE “EVsmart” network. Drivers use Shell Recharge to start a charging session and pay for usage. The present price is $0.32/kWh for fast charging and $0.18/kWh for Level 2, including MD sales and use tax.
History of Issues
This location opened on March 13, 2020. The site cost $124,029.56 to install according to documents filed with the Maryland Public Service Commission. This does not include the cost of the replacement equipment.
Revenue at this particular site amounted to $1,419.77 through December 31, 2021. The electric bill for that period was $7,313.71 resulting in a loss of $5,893.94 for the first 21 months of operation.
The fast charger at the Annapolis Library has had a history of EV drivers reporting issues. The CHAdeMO connector was damaged in December and BGE said that there was a delay in getting parts.
BGE is not the only charging operator to replace equipment. Electrify America swapped equipment at many of their charging sites. The Columbia, Maryland site was closed for six weeks to replace the hardware in late 2020.
Hopefully the replacement fast charger at the Annapolis Library will renew the confidence of EV drivers and utilization will increase.
BGE and the City of Baltimore are nearing an agreement to allow BGE-owned public charging stations to be installed at certain locations within the City. The Baltimore City Council introduced a bill this week that would grant a franchise to BGE to install and operate public charging stations on City rights-of-way and at certain park properties.
According to the 1st Reader text of Council Bill 20-0573 (copied below), the City would grant BGE a right to “install, operate, maintain, repair, replace, and remove electric vehicle charging stations at City-approved locations on City right-of-way and on Park Properties.” The initial term of the franchise is proposed to be one year with an automatic annual renewal for 25 years total.
Section 4 of the bill suggests that BGE shall pay Baltimore an unspecified franchise charge each year. The franchise charge can increase or decrease and the franchise can be cancelled by either party at the end of the initial or any renewal term.
The Maryland PSC Order No. 88997, issued on January 14, 2019, requires that utility-owned and operated charging stations must be located on property owned or controlled by state, county, or local governments.
Baltimore City Council assigned this bill to the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
