Okay, here is my summary of the subject meeting. Please visit the
NC PEV Task Force website in the near future as I believe they will be posting the presentations there.
The format of the meeting was a live video-conference with attendees in the Triangle, Charlotte, Asheville, Triad, and a special guest speaker from Seattle, WA.
Larry Shirley from the NC Dept of Commerce kicked off (and closed) the meeting with opening and closing remarks.
Katie Drye of Advanced Energy gave an update (and quick history) of the task force and related items of interest (e.g. the Plug-in Expo held in Raleigh last July). The task force consists of a steering committee that meets monthly and five working groups that also meet monthly. The working groups started meeting in January of this year so have met approximately 3 times. Participation in the working groups was determined as a result of interest specified at a symposium held in October 2011 (sorry, I don't know exactly what/when/where this was).
Some stats were shown that showed EV purchases and charging station installations over the past decade. It could be a trick of "scale", but I saw a peak in EV sales in 2008 and charging station installations in mid 2000's. I suspect the majority of these were fleet conversions and possibly what they called "neighborhood electric vehicles".
Sean Flaherty of the Centralina Council of Governments gave an update on the Mountains to Sea (M2S) project. M2S is the result of a US Dept of Energy grant ($500K I believe) going from Sept '11 to Sept '12) to cover PEV readiness in specific "communities" or regions. I believe the officially recognized communities are the Triangle and Charlotte regions, with work ongoing to officially recognize Asheville and the Triad. M2S also has working groups divided by region. There is a specific list of deliverables mandated by the grant that the groups are working on.
I don't know on what he based this data on, but he did show a chart which showed various metro areas in the US and indicated whether each city was part of a first, second or third wave of EV adoption/readiness and whether they were a leader or follower. Raleigh was indicated as a first wave leader and Charlotte as a second wave strong follower. Again, I'm not sure what that's based on exactly, and not sure why I didn't see other cities (i.e. San Jose, CA) in such strong positions. I'll await the presentation to be posted to see if there is a source listed for that particular chart.
The highlight (in my opinion) of the day was a presentation by Stephanie Meyn of the Western Washington Clean Cities association. Stephanie shared an in-depth lessons learned and best practices presentation based on her experience in gearing up the Seattle, WA area for EVs since they've already blazed that trail. We certainly do have a lot to learn from their experience and it's great they they are willing to share it.
Highlights:
- EV adoption is high in WA due to: high adoption rate of hybrid vehicles (1.53 vehicles / 1000 residents, 2nd only to CA) indicates willingness to accept EVs; favorable climate [I would say that NC enjoys a favorable climate as well]; high-tech areas with early adopter / green consumer attitudes; strong government leadership; inexpensive and relatively clean electricity (mainly hydro based on WA).
- Two key pieces of state legislation: HB 1481: provided ordinance models and specific timeframe that localities must adopt pass such ordinances, EVSE siting/installation guidelines [there is actually an infrastructure guidance document created as a result--not sure if it's publicly available], required charging stations to be installed at state-owned/managed rest areas and properties, sales tax exemption for EVSE (there is no income tax in WA, so all incentives are sales tax based). HB 1571: clarified revenue generation for charging so there is a clear path to who can charge for and under what terms, the electricity used for charging stations. She did not give specifics on these bills, but I assume we can probably find them online if need be.
- Once they had this readiness in place, grant money quickly flowed towards WA due to their advanced readiness (Ecotality, Charge America, Clean Cities, etc.) [we are probably still at the stage here in NC where we may reap some of those "early worms" ourselves if we act quickly]
- Infrastructure guidance: ideal sites are places of employments OUTSIDE of urban cores (urban core sites had drivers that had such small commutes that charging stations wouldn't be required); park & rides are rarely good sites; they had issues with politicians wanting to place charging stations at visible locations in front of "city hall" but were almost useless; shopping centers, stadiums, malls and airports are also good sites
- Because of potential issues with "selling" a service like electricity at federally funded interstate rest areas, their DC Fast Charge (DC FC) plan involved partnering with retail entities just off the interstate.
- She shared some stats they received from their partners. I didn't have time to get every last stat, and the stats she showed were broken down to weekday vs. weekend, but I'll report the essence of the data here. We'll have to wait for the actual presentation to see the full data:
78% of charging was at home; 21% away from home
Avg trip distance: 6.7-6.9 miles [I personally think this data may be skewed as when I go somewhere, I may stop for a bagel, then coffee, then go to my destination, so I may have a 2.0 mile trip, 1.5 mile trip, then a 30 mile trip--I really think this should just be combined into a single 33.5 mile trip!]
Avg distance / day: 31.2 miles
Home charging: plugged in (but not necessarily charging) 11.2 hours; charging: 2.3 hours 8.1 kWh
Public charging: plugged in (but not necessarily charging) 5.9 hours; charging: 1.6 hours 5.9 kWh
Home charging was pretty consistent weekday to weekend (slightly higher on weekend), but public charging was much higher on weekday (indicating that most public charging is probably workplace charging)
- Their avg EVSE cost was $8K/unit [gosh this is high!]
- They had many issues with parking deck installations since charging stations communicate over cell networks that didn't work reliably in a parking deck. She recommended a few alternatives and advice for dealing with vendors that say their equipment works well in parking decks.
- Agreements for land-leasing, etc. for DC FC took up to a year (some did take less). [So if we haven't started the process yet here in NC--and I don't believe we have--we probably should not hold our breath for DC FC unless it is initiated by a private entity (e.g. Walgreens or Sheetz)]
- They had issues with accuracy of EVSE maps, due to, for example, their dealing with an entity with a specific mailing address but the EVSE was installed in a different location.
The next topic was reports from the task force working groups. There are 6 of them, and the format of the reports were a summary of work done Jan-Mar, next steps Apr-Sep, and any barriers and accomplishments. The working groups are:
1) Vehicles
2) Infrastructure - in scope: AC L1/L2 DC L2 [what they are calling DC QC or DC FC I believe] at NC State Level; out of scope: building codes, incentives, vehicle to grid (V2G), actual deployment and regional needs.
3) Incentives & Economic Development (specifically to encourage EV equipment manufacturers and suppliers to locate here in NC)
4) Policy, Codes & Standards: Policy (inspection, legislation, permitting (goal 24-48 hour permitting process); Standards (ADA, Parking Rules, Zoning); Codes (Building Codes, safety)
5) Education & Outreach
The next topic was a readout from each of the M2S regions. Of interest here were plans for the Centralina region to create a high visible transportation piece to air on national TV prior to [in conjunction with?] the Democratic National Convention. I'm not really too sure what form this will take--probably a Charlotte booster type video that shows Charlotte as leading edge when it comes to alternative transportation? Asheville also had a lot going on, citing their high hybrid adoption rate (2X ahead of the rest of the state) so they expect EV adoption will follow suit. They mentioned they had a DC QC unit at the Eaton manufacturing facility for an EV test drive event they had out there. I don't know whether it's a permanent or portable unit, but interesting nonetheless. They also have a public solar charging station (looked like it had 3 bays) at UNC-Asheville with Eaton charging stations, Sundance Solar solar panels and installed by BioWheels, all NC companies. Unfortunately it is adjacent to an ABC store and patrons have pulled up to it thinking it's a drive thru for the ABC store!
The next meeting will be held in an in-person format somewhere in the Triad. I'm pretty sure the date was June 20, but if not it's sometime really close to that. There were no charging stations at the Triangle location this time. It would be nice if they had charging stations at whatever location they choose so I could potentially take the LEAF there (with a stopover at the Alamance rest area)!
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