In 2019, the Maryland Public Service Commission approved a pilot program allowing five utility companies to own and operate public charging stations. By regulation, these utilities must maintain a 97% uptime for their charging stations. This means each charging port must be operational and supply electricity at least 97% of the time annually.
Methodology
In September and October 2024, I conducted a series of virtual “charger audits,” using the ChargeHub, Shell Recharge and ChargePoint apps to check the online status of every charging port in the utility networks. While on-site audits are ideal, weekly virtual audits provide a practical way to track the system’s performance remotely.
Data Charts
The following charts illustrate the data collected from these virtual charger audits.
Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) owns and operates this EV charging station at the Charlotte Hall Library in St. Mary’s County, MD. It has a single DC fast charger rated at 50 kW. See all the pertinent details below.
Charger Construction Cost
$106,688.75 Total site construction cost per the Maryland PSC PC44 EV Pilot Program
Category
Amount
Equipment
$81,064.13
Contractor
$5,000.00
Network
$7,138.00
Utility
$13,486.62
Total
$106,688.75
Electricity Cost vs Revenue
$1,393.17 Surplus (Since Inception)
Metric
Amount
Energy Used
31,070 kWh
Revenue
$9,028.82
Electricity Cost
$7,635.65
Surplus
$1,393.17
Note: This calculation only reflects the difference between electricity costs and revenue as of June 30, 2024. Other operating expenses, such as maintenance and repair costs, are not included.
Trend Graph: Monthly Electricity Dispensed in kWh
Charlotte Hall Library EV charging monthly usage trend in kWh
Site Information
Location Address: 37600 New Market Rd., Charlotte Hall, MD 20622 County: St. Mary’s Facility Type: Library Coordinates: 38.4732855, -76.7764742 Directions: At SE corner of library parking lot. Map Link: OpenStreetMap
Charger Audit: SMECO EV Recharge Network, October 01, 2024
Five years ago, the Maryland Public Service Commission approved a pilot program allowing the state’s largest utilities to own and operate public charging stations. Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) runs the smallest of these utility-operated networks, branded “EV Recharge,” which includes four DC fast chargers and 68 Level 2 ports at 36 locations across their service area. By statute, SMECO, like other utilities, must maintain 97% uptime for each charging station, meaning every charging port must function as designed and dispense electricity at least 97% of the time annually, measured in minutes.
On October 1, 2024, I conducted the third in a series of virtual “charger audits” of SMECO’s EV Recharge network, reviewing the online status of all 72 charging ports using the ChargeHub and Shell Recharge apps. While in-person audits provide the most accurate data, conducting them weekly is impractical. That’s why I’m tracking the status of every port in Maryland’s utility-owned public charging program through these online audits.
It’s worth noting that I’ve personally visited all of SMECO’s public charging sites and am familiar with their locations. For the stations reported as offline in this audit, I visited those specific sites in July and can confirm the app statuses accurately reflected their condition at that time.
88% Availability on October 01, 2024
The latest charger audit of SMECO showed that only 88% of the charging ports were online or in use, falling short of the 97% uptime target. One offline Level 2 unit is located at White Plains Regional Park. When I visited that station in July, the screen was damaged, and the charger was unable to dispense a charge. According to SMECO’s most recent semi-annual report to the PSC, uptime at this location was 57.3%, with vandalism cited as the issue. While vandalism is a valid challenge, there should be limits on how long a station can remain non-operational, regardless of the cause. Extended downtime is unacceptable, especially in light of Maryland’s ambitious EV adoption goals.
See the video below, recorded on July 27, 2024, showing the damaged EVSE screen at White Plains Regional Park.
In January 2019, the Maryland Public Service Commission approved a limited EV pilot program, enabling Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) to build a public EV charging network. SMECO now operates 36 charging locations across its service area, with expectations of high reliability—just as with their residential and commercial electric services. SMECO, along with other utilities in the pilot program, is held to a 97% uptime target, meaning each charging port should be functional at least 97% of the time annually.
Overall Port Availability on 09-24-2024: 88%
On September 24, 2024, I conducted a virtual “charger audit” of SMECO’s EV Recharge network using ChargeHub and Shell Recharge apps to assess the status of all 72 charging ports. The audit revealed that only 88% of the ports were online or in use—well below the 97% uptime target. This is a significant shortfall for a utility striving to meet the expectations of EV drivers and the reliability standards set by regulators.
Reliability at Risk
This shortfall in reliability is troubling, especially as Maryland strives to meet aggressive electric vehicle adoption goals. With one in four fast chargers offline, public confidence in the charging infrastructure—a vital component for widespread EV transition—could be undermined.
SMECO’s semi-annual report to the PSC flagged some of these ongoing issues. For example, the DCFC at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum showed only 62.8% uptime for the period ending June 30, 2024. The report cited “multiple hardware failures and part replacement delays” as the cause.
Another problematic site is White Plains Regional Park, where the chargers are currently out of service. SMECO’s report indicated the station had a 62.8% uptime in Q1-Q2 2024, with vandalism noted as the cause. While vandalism is understandably a challenge, there should be a hard limit on how long a station can remain non-operational, regardless of the issue. Extended downtime, whether from hardware failure or external damage, is simply unacceptable in the context of Maryland’s broader EV goals.
Public Chargers Owned by SMECO Report as of September 15, 2024
Maryland Utility-owned EV charging stations are required to maintain 97% uptime per a law (HB 834) that went into effect on October 1st, 2023. Quarterly uptime reports are required by the utilities as part of the statute. The data to be submitted as part of those reports will have to conform to a template that is still being developed by the Public Service Commission (PSC). It could be not until sometime in 2025 when the public will actually see the utilities’ detailed charger uptime reports. Until that data is available, EV drivers, rate payers and policy makers won’t have the information needed to hold the utilities accountable for the millions spent so far on the public EV charging pilot program.
The spreadsheet below is an attempt to gauge charger reliability until we get granular charger uptime data from the utilities. The charging station port IDs were reported as “offline” in the ChargeHub app and confirmed as offline in the Shell Recharge app when queried on September 15, 2024.
Of the 72 charging ports across 36 SMECO-owned locations, seven showed as offline (on September 15, 2024), representing about 10% of the total. Three sites were completely down with no operable charging plugs. There are three DC Fast Chargers in the SMECO network and one of those has been offline for months. The DCFC at Patuxent River Naval Air Museum apparently hasn’t worked since May. This is unacceptable and could lead to a major setback for EV adoption if not addressed, especially when the goal is 97% uptime for every charging port in Maryland.
In SMECO’s semi-annual report to the PSC, the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum DCFC was reported to have 62.8% uptime for the period ending June 30, 2024. The issue was described to be “Multiple hardware Failure and part replacement delays.”
Another site that is completely down is White Plains Regional Park. The uptime reported for the Q1-Q2, 2024 period was 62.8% with the reason noted to be “Vandalism.” Even if the cause is vandalism, there really needs to be a limit on the time that a charging station is to remain broken.
