A charging plug connects an electric vehicle to a charging station. | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration is confident New York will have 10,000 publicly accessible charging stations for electric vehicles by the end of 2021. The number of places drivers will be able to find those plugs, however, will be far more limited.
Cuomo announced his current 10,000 stations goal in 2018 — his administration aiming to “make ownership of gasoline-powered vehicles obsolete.” But the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which is overseeing efforts to bring the stations online, says that number refers to individual plugs for electric vehicles, not discrete stations throughout the state — an important distinction if the state hopes to alleviate “range anxiety” associated with the vehicles.
The state appears to be lagging in the effort. Just getting to Cuomo’s goal will require construction to proceed over the next 14 months at a rate more than double the past year. There are currently about 6,500 charging plugs, including 800 at workplaces, across the state. And even if that threshold is met, clean energy boosters say the state needs to be more ambitious to cut transportation emissions to the level required under the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
“We really just need to make sure we’re rightsizing infrastructure for a fully electric future,” said the Sierra Club’s Allison Considine. “Ten thousand isn’t going to cover that.”
Boosting the number of charging facilities, and ultimately making electric vehicles easy for everyone to own and operate, is a key component of Cuomo’s effort to fight climate change. Despite the high-level commitment and state subsidies meant to spur the installation of new stations, New York currently has fewer than 2,000 separate public charging locations — a quarter of the roughly 8,000 traditional gas stations that dot the state, according to federal and state data.
The state is behind in the rollout of fast chargers at service areas on the Thruway, a project that has languished for years and won’t be complete by the 2020 target. The state’s underlying goal — to hit 850,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2025 — has proven challenging, and a blue-ribbon panel on electric vehicle technology announced by the Cuomo administration in January has yet to convene.
The state, though, has rolled out new incentives for developers of charging stations and tapped the New York Power Authority’s deep coffers to support the build-out. State officials insist they’re still committed to meeting their targets over the next four years.
“We are leaving no stone unturned in ensuring electric vehicles become the default transportation choice for drivers across the state as we work toward our 2025 goal,” said Doreen Harris, the acting head of NYSERDA.
Thruway fast charging
Traveling along the state’s 570-mile Thruway system that links Buffalo, Albany and New York City often requires travelers with electric vehicles to exit if they need to recharge. Cuomo first set a goal for the system to have 69 charging stations in the policy book that accompanied his January 2017 State of the State address.
In 2018 the book proclaimed that by 2020, an electric vehicle “traveling anywhere on New York’s interstate system will be able to recharge at a location convenient to the driver.”
Drivers can now recharge quickly at 12 stations at 7 locations directly on the Thruway, according to the authority’s website, but long stretches have few locations even after exiting.
“It is a little dicey when you’re traveling from Albany to Syracuse,” said New Yorkers for Clean Power’s Betta Broad, who drives an EV. “Fingers crossed they’re going to really hurry up and get these installed.”
The Thruway Authority decided to link installation of fast charging infrastructure at service areas with a broader revitalization of those stops through a contractor selected in May 2020, according to authority spokesperson Jonathan Dougherty.
NYPA is also assisting with the Thruway Authority’s installation of slower Level 2 chargers at commuter lots, with nine expected to have charging available by the end of the year. Eventually, Dougherty said the Thruway network will have 100 chargers available.
Utility ‘make-ready’ programs
Utilities are in the process of rolling out new subsidies for electric vehicle chargers to support Cuomo’s goals.
The utilities are implementing a “make ready” program approved by the Public Service Commission in July to spend up to $591 million to pay part of the costs to upgrade infrastructure needed for charging stations. Online portals went live last month and a few utilities have already received applications.
Charging station developers are eager to move forward, with some awaiting more details or the release of Volkswagen settlement grants for fast charging that have been on hold for years.
“The make-ready infrastructure order was a critical step forward,” said Kevin Miller, public policy director for Chargepoint, which doesn’t own chargers but operates a charger network. “We’ve seen a really quick response from utilities to put that plan into action.”
Miller said Chargepoint is working with potential site hosts to develop applications for the new program.
Charging targets
The state Public Service Commission's program supports both Level 2 chargers and direct current fast chargers, or DCFCs. The Level 2’s take several hours to juice up and are most useful at homes or workplaces where people leave their cars for a long period. The fast chargers are more akin to a typical gas station where a driver pulls off, charges up and is back on the road again.
Fast chargers can fully charge up an EV in less than 30 minutes, depending on their capacity, and are seen as key to supporting longer trips and reducing range anxiety. The Cadmus Group, a consultant working on a clean transportation road map for NYSERDA, identified gaps in upstate fast charging availability as one major barrier to increasing EV adoption in the state.
The commission order identified a need for about 73,000 Level 2 plugs and 2,600 fast charging plugs by 2025. There are currently about 600 fast charging plugs and roughly 6,000 Level 2’s.
The utilities’ make-ready program will pay up to 100 percent of eligible capital costs for stations located in or near environmental justice communities, 90 percent for stations that have multiple plug types and are publicly accessible and 50 percent for those that only meet some of those criteria.
There are some caveats: work must be performed by utility-approved contractors and utilities can earn a hefty payment if they hit their targets, giving them an incentive to keep costs low and scrutinize applications closely. Charging station developers are evaluating utility implementation plans to ensure additional hurdles aren’t imposed.
“It’s really important that when utilities set up these programs they don’t add new requirements,” said Matt Nelson, director of government affairs for Electrify America, formed by Volkswagen after the company’s emissions scandal. “It’s a good framework, where it allows significant utility investment but attracts [developer] investment … but it’s a little early to know if the final rules will allow us to participate.”
Con Edison has the largest target for the number of charging plugs in 2025: 18,500 Level 2 plugs and 457 fast charging plugs. Other utilities, such as NYSEG/RG&E and National Grid are assessing applications or still waiting on applications to be submitted.
NYSERDA came out with its overall plan for the Volkswagen funds in 2018 and has made about $17 million available for Level 2 chargers in the form of a $4,000 per-plug rebate. About $7 million remains for that program.
With the expectation of that added money on the horizon, some developers are holding off on final plans.
“Everybody is waiting to make sure that can be applied for and accessed,” said Jon Levy with EVGo, which develops, owns and operates fast chargers. “If you know funding is supposed to be coming and you’re waiting, there’s an interplay with the development. … It is a long development cycle in New York.”
One major hurdle for the broader rollout of EV infrastructure is the operating costs of stations.
Rate redesign to reduce demand charges — which set costs based on peak usage and can be prohibitive for DCFCs — is a major lobbying priority for developers, who are pushing their agenda at both the Public Service Commission and Legislature.
NYPA’s role
In addition to the make-ready program, the Cuomo administration has also tapped the New York Power Authority to spend $250 million on building out chargers. NYPA’s Evolve NY initiative is aimed at building a network of fast chargers, primarily in areas the private sector has passed over due to low utilization. NYPA’s trustees have so far approved an investment of $40 million to build 200 chargers in 50 locations.
The eventual goal is to build up to 800 chargers at 200 locations, though only two have opened to the public so far.
Rebbeca Hughes, NYPA’s manager of marketing and customer engagement for eMobility said one major goal is “proving the business model for private developers and seeking to accelerate development across the state.”
Locations poised to open soon include a hub at JFK airport, Fairport, Malone and Schroon Lake, Hughes said.
The authority has plans to develop stations downstate where more EV drivers live and where private developers may have more interest, but some developers are concerned about having to compete with NYPA’s low cost of capital.
NYPA fought to get access to some of the “make ready” funds and is allowed to access up to $30 million but must provide advance information, publicly posted, about locations it is considering in case private developers were planning chargers nearby. The requirement doesn’t apply to locations where chargers aren’t eligible for make ready funding such as those served by municipal utilities or LIPA.
Hughes said that if the private market begins to invest more in fast chargers in regions of the state that aren’t currently served, NYPA would have achieved its goal.
Multi-state goal
New York remains far short of its 2025 goal to get 850,000 zero emission vehicles on the road as part of a multi-state agreement signed in 2013. There are about 56,000 of the vehicles registered in New York state as of October 2020, according to state data.
“We’re woefully behind tackling our greatest source of emissions, which is the transportation sector,” said Environmental Advocates of New York executive director Peter Iwanowicz. “The type of energy that is going into the decarbonization of the electric sector … needs to be rapidly applied to our transportation sector emissions.”
Factors such as cost parity with traditional fossil fuel vehicles, the number and availability of different models including SUVs or crossovers, and federal and state incentives are all likely to play a big role in the rate of adoption.
What’s next
During his State of the State address this year, Cuomo highlighted the creation of a blue-ribbon panel led by a Nobel prize winner to address EV policies, but the other members of that panel haven’t been publicly announced more than 10 months later.
The chair of the panel, M. Stanley Whittingham, a professor at Binghamton University, said the work had taken a backseat to addressing the pandemic.
The panel will focus more on technical barriers than policy issues, he said in an interview, including manufacturing of batteries.
“We need lower cost batteries, we need U.S. battery manufacturing capability which means we need the supply chain,” Whittingham said.
"electric" - Google News
November 10, 2020 at 05:01PM
https://ift.tt/3f04oLL
New York faces a long road on electric vehicle commitments - Politico
"electric" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2yk35WT
https://ift.tt/2YsSbsy
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "New York faces a long road on electric vehicle commitments - Politico"
Post a Comment