Ten 120v Outlets in Annapolis Level 1 EV Charging Pilot

I had heard that Maryland Department of General Services (DGS) had received a grant from the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) for a pilot program of 10 Level 1 EV charging stations in the Calvert Street Garage in Annapolis. The garage, at 19 St. Johns St., is very close to the House of Delegates office building where I testified last week. So, when I was headed back to my car, I decided to take a shortcut through the garage (which is reserved for state employees during business hours) to see if I could spot them.

Sure enough, on the bottom floor, on the wall on the right as you would enter by car, were ten 120v outlets positioned at chest level, one in front of each parking spot for an entire row of spaces. Each outlet box was labeled with a strip of white tape, “CAR CHARGER,” followed by numbers 1 through 10. The outlet boxes were supplied by wiring in brand new metal conduit. Each box had a pair of 20 Amp GFCI sockets under a hinged plastic cover.

There were no signs up yet identifying the EV charging spots but I expect they may be placed soon. The garage already houses one of the first public charging stations in the state. It is a dual port L1/L2 ChargePoint station and I saw that two cars were using it when I walked by on Thursday. There are 720 parking spaces in the entire garage with 12 spots, or almost 2% of the spaces, dedicated to plug-in vehicle charging.

When the 120v EV charging outlets were first proposed, DGS had three concerns, liability for possible damage to cars, the garage was already at full capacity and nobody was asking for more charging stations. Evidently, those objections were overcome and it will be interesting to follow how successful the pilot program will become. The garage is open to the public on weekdays after 6:00 PM and all day Saturday and Sunday.

@Lanny