Colorado Electric Vehicle Fast-Charging Corridors

[GRA]

Montrose and Estes Park are both showing as open on Plugshare and the CP app.

[dgpcolorado]

Montrose and Estes Park are both showing as open on Plugshare and the CP app.

Hoping to head down and check Montrose in the next day or two (it is a 70 mile trip so I wait until I need groceries).

[GRA]

Estes Park has disappeared from Plugshare's map but is still shown on CP's app, and there was a check-in by a LEAF at 12:54 today.

[dgpcolorado]

One of the two stalls in Montrose CO is on. The other is "Unavailable," perhaps because the shipping crates block access to the front side of the pedestal. The stalls "share" 125 kW so I presume that they are the usual 62.5 kW each. The rate is a stiff 20¢/kWh plus 25¢/min, an increasingly common rate in Colorado.


^ Stall 2 on the left is "Available." This DCFC station is a joint project of the State of Colorado and DMEA (Delta-Montrose Electric Association), the local power co-op.


^ The shipping crates block easy access to the front of one stall.

[GRA]

For a LEAF or a Bolt, 20¢/kWh + 25¢/ min. means you're paying over 45¢/kWh initially, with the price rising from there, which isn't competitive with gas (gasbuddy shows prices in Montrose around $2.26-$2.33/gal.). And the cars which will impose the highest demand charges will pay the least per kWh

[cwerdna]

The rate is a stiff 20¢/kWh plus 25¢/min, an increasingly common rate in Colorado.

20 cents/kWh for DC FC by CA standards wouldn't be bad but yeah, the 25 cents a minute on top of that is pretty crappy.

I'm guessing they won't be used very much...

[dgpcolorado]

^ While I agree that such expensive DCFC charging won't be used much by locals, as part of a road trip expense it is less of an issue, considering the other expenses of travel. If using lodging (hotels/camping) with destination charging, one starts out with a full battery each day. For shorter trips, say an out and back from home with one or two DCFC stops enroute, home charging covers a lot of the miles on both ends of the trip.

Nevertheless, I'd much rather see a flat 30¢/kWh, or something simple like that. By way of comparison, the residential rate for DMEA is about 11¢/kWh.

...And the cars which will impose the highest demand charges will pay the least per kWh

A technical note: that's not really how demand charges work. They are usually set by the highest power draw in any fifteen minute period in a month. So, if at any time the station draws the full 125 kW for fifteen minutes, that would set the demand charge at the maximum for the month. The actual DMEA proposed EV charge station tariff for three-phase stations of 50 kW or more:

Access Fee = $150.00/month
Energy Charge = $0.17000/kWh
Member Demand Charge = $2.00/kW
Idle Service Charge per month = $75.00/month

[I believe that this rate was formally adopted by the DMEA board in October.]

So, if the ChargePoint station drew 125 kW at some point in the month, the demand charge would be $250 for that month. It wouldn't matter how many times that threshold was reached. (It might actually be somewhat higher if the stations deliver 125 kW but they draw somewhat more than that.)

[GRA]

^^^ Thanks for posting the details. With those access and idle fees, I agree the demand charges become far less significant, and doing it by the kW instead of a kW range makes things fairer.

[SageBrush]

The stalls "share" 125 kW so I presume that they are the usual 62.5 kW each. The rate is a stiff 20¢/kWh plus 25¢/min, an increasingly common rate in Colorado.

Remember back when we were all taken aback by 70 cents a kWh in Europe at the Ionity chargers ?
Slow charging EVs like the LEAF are not much cheaper

One silver lining though: people are going to learn to not charge much past a SoC of 60% if they do not need the charge to reach their next charging stop.

[DougWantsALeaf]

I do feel for ev drivers that have no home charging. They do need an economical option. For your occasional road trip, the price premium for a dc charge is ok with me, as I want there to be working infrastructure to support the trip.