State Park Charging

[Turnover]

I wrote the following to the Washington State Park Commission ccing some legislators. Perhaps others would like to chime in to their state park commissions and/or legislators:

Dear Commissioners,

I am Pat Campbell a Washington Trails volunteer at our state parks, a former Vancouver city council member, and an Electric Vehicle Ambassador http://cubpolicycenter.org/evambassadors/meet" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.



Compared to Oregon, Washington has a dearth of electrical vehicle charging stations. Most Washington charging stations are on I-5. However, as you know most of our great state parks are a ways off this route. Many of our parks do have a basic asset that could attract electric vehicle drivers and their families in the form of recreational plug ins. Rarely, during the year are these RV 240 Volt NEMA 14 50 plugs totally booked up by campers.



Due to the scarcity of electric vehicle charging stations, a small and growing industry of making electric vehicle charging cords that can handle NEMA 14 50 and other typical state park camping electrical outlets has developed http://www.quickchargepower.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. The Nissan Leaf has the ability to charge at 6.6 kilowatts and hour using a NEMA 14 50 plug. The Leaf can hold 24 Kwh. Given a cost of about 10 cents a Kwh that is 66 cents of electricity an hour or a possible but unlikely $2.40 a full charge. (The highest charge I've gotten was at Oregon's Fort Stevens Park. That was 17 Kwh.)



Currently (no pun intended), when Washington State Park rangers are approached by electric vehicle owners to use vacant electrical outlets for charging purposes they get puzzled looks.



I see the need for a state park electric vehicle charging policy; a policy which would leverage our public assets and encourage park day and annual pass purchases. The simplest policy might be to make charging available to any Discover (yearly) or day pass holder when a RV outlet box is open. A more involved policy might be to have a fee like the current boat launch fee. My feeling is that the biggest bang for the State's buck is the current pass arrangement. Its simple, doesn't require a lot of thought, preparation, or added park or documentation infrastructure. The cost of the electricity is minor in relation to either the day or annual pass and results in a net profit to Washington State Parks --- something we need very badly. It will also help the local economies especially in Eastern Washington, our Coast, and rural areas.



I see you have a Commission meeting coming up later this month. I would be happy to be available for questions.

Sincerely,

Pat Campbell

 

[DarkStar]

I've used the 240v NEMA 14-50 plugs at the RV pedestals a few times here at Oregon State Parks without any issues. I've also inquired at some County sites as well and told it wouldn't be an issue. Now, I've never assumed I would be able to charge, but always asked politely if I could when paying my Day Use fee and have never been denied, actually I've been told on more than one occasion that they're glad it's something they can do for us.

 

[Turnover]

I've had a similar experience in Oregon as noted. There is a different attitude in Washington due to the extreme financial stress are state parks are under to the extent of shorting volunteer hours (travel time) of those working to slow down deterioration of facilities. Its gotten to the point where Canadians flock to the Oregon parks while bypassing our Washington State parks.

 

[Reddy]

Here is an email exchange I had with Angela Harper on this same subject. Perhaps if more people kept up the requests, we would get an official policy for hourly charging on RV plugs:
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Dear Angela Harper:

Thanks for your assistance and the quick response. I’m glad you enjoyed the research. Electric vehicles are something most people don’t realize are “real,” here now, and very useable. So much so, that I’m finding that I am enjoying driving much more than before.

You have definitely provided good news for EV drivers in the “western third” of the state. I always expected that most charging stations would be located near the larger population centers. This is certainly the case for commercial charging stations (ChargePoint, Blink, AV). I look forward to the day when these commercial stations are available at all of the state parks, but that will certainly be many years from now. However, the parks are located throughout the state and provide an excellent location for charging in the less populated areas of the state.

Yes, you are correct that EVSE’s require a dedicated circuit. However, an electric car does not always need a site-based EVSE . My Nissan Leaf comes with its own portable EVSE that plugs into a standard electrical receptacle. In addition, there are portable EVSE’s that can plug into standard campsite RV electrical (50 amp 240 V). I’ve attached a picture for reference of a commercial version that plugs into a L6-20 receptacle (20 Amp 240 V).

Please reconsider my request. I would like to plug into the existing RV campsite electrical (yes, these are dedicated circuits) only if available and not already reserved during the day for a few hours. As it is now, I can reserve the site and pay the overnight full RV price (upwards of $40) but that’s more than I want to pay for $2 of electricity, especially since I wouldn’t be there more than a couple of hours. I’m just wondering if the parks service would consider a special day-use EV charging rate (say $5). I’ve arranged this deal at Crow Butte Park (now managed by the Port of Benton) and think a similar policy in the WA State Park System would be a good idea as well.

Reddy, Nissan Leaf Owner
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From: Harper, Angela (PARKS) [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 10:21 AM
To: Reddy
Cc: Burnett, Linda (PARKS)
Subject: RE: Electric Car Charging at State Parks

Hello Mr Reddy,
Thank you for your question, it has been fun researching. Here is the response I got:

State Parks will be installing Type 2 Electric Vehicle Service Equipment (EVSE) at four State Parks (Lake Sammamish, Saint Edward, Saltwater, Millersylvania, HQ) later this spring. We have a one-year service agreement with ECOtality to install up to 14 charging stations at these parks and Head Quarters. We were luck to receive a grant to purchase and install and are waiting for final electrical bids for the installation to determine locations. We do have an interest in expanding our EVSE installations, so I will be continuing to look for grants to help fund this.

Currently the parks do not offer this service as EVSE require special dedicated circuits. There may be a retrofit available to use standard camping outlets, but we don't have that option yet. The "Blink" Type 2 charging stations will be charging $1/hour to charge and the person must have a Blink card to charge it (available from ECOtality).

Thank you for supporting your Washington State Parks,
Angela Harper
Customer Service Specialist
Washington State Parks Information Center
360-902-8844
360-586-6640 (fax)
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
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From: "Reddy"
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2013 2:43 PM
To: Information Center (PARKS)
Subject: Electric Car Charging at State Parks

Dear Parks:

Is there a standard fee (other than full overnight campsite with electrical) for day use and charging of electric vehicles (EV)? If not, please consider adding such an options. Thanks.

EVs are becoming more common in WA state, with tens of thousands of Nissan Leafs sold last two years. While purpose-built EV charging stations are being added around the state (http://westcoastgreenhighway.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false, in certain less populated areas (Eastern WA) they are nearly non-existent. The ability to charge at WA State Parks without requiring a full overnight stay would make EV travel much easier in these areas.

The Nissan Leaf currently requires 3.8 KW (that is 16 amp at 240 V) and adapters are available to plug into standard RV campground electrical receptacles. Future models will use 6.6 KW (still easily charged at RV campgrounds) and all models consume less than $3.00 of electricity to fully charge.

Reddy, Nissan Leaf Owner

 

[Turnover]

Excellent exchange Reddy. Here is what I got back from a west side state representative

Hello, Pat!



This would be a good policy to work on over the interim. We have 11 days left in session and a policy like this might be a difficult to work out in that time frame. I do have concerns about allowing the Discover Pass as pay for using electrical outlets—since people without electric cars would pay the same fee for the Pass as those with electrical vehicles. And, depending on how much you used the Pass, therefore charged your car, you might use more electricity than what the Pass cost…. So, we should work out a reasonable fee for using outlets to charge electric vehicles.



Ed




Representative Ed Orcutt

20th Legislative District



Olympia Office:

408 John L. O’Brien Building

PO Box 40600

Olympia, WA 98504

* [email protected]
( 360.786.7990



Regarding your letter, we have a lot of charging opportunities on the west side, but need the ability to charge on the east side. Hey, I do like it over here but my god I like sun occasionally!

 

[Turnover]

Received the JESLA this week and was able to try it out yesterday at Battle Ground State Park near Battle Ground, WA. Seems to work fine off the existing NEMA 14-50 outlets and should open up a lot of opportunities in Washington state parks if we can get a charging policy that makes sense for the park staff, RV users, and EV drivers.