Electric Vehicle Charging Standards, Practices Take Shape

Sales of new electric cars (EVs), trucks and buses are expected to continue to grow. To address the growth, several standards and requirements for charging stations were recently announced that will affect cooperatives. 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHA) recently released 144 pages of standards and requirements for charging stations funded under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program and for stations funded under other federal programs. NEVI chargers and Alternative Fuel Corridors operate at 150 kW per port. Each station will have four ports for a total of 600 kW of possible demand. Public Level 2 EV chargers will have a minimum size of 6 kW. 

Key Topics Outlined in FHA Document

Key areas covered by the document include requirements for charger installation and maintenance by qualified technicians, interoperability across the national network, consistent signage, data sharing with the federal government of station performance, network connectivity requirements and consistent procedures for informing users of location and pricing. 

Currently, there is no standard that governs when additional ports need to be added to a station. However, there is a general rule of thumb used by EV station owners. Once a station reaches 20% utilization it is time for an upgrade—adding more ports and possibly adding ports with faster charging. The downside of this rule is that the charging station is not in use 80% of the day. 

NEVI’s network is designed to meet the needs of personal vehicles. Electric buses and freight trucks sometimes have different needs. To meet the needs of future growth, CharIN has developed the Megawatt Charging System (MCS). CharIN is an international association dedicated to promoting interoperability based on the Combined Charging System (CCS). Their MCS standard has taken the CCS to a level that provides faster charging to class 6–8 commercial vehicles. 

The MCS is a standard and connector that allows for a charge rate greater than 1 MW. The current maximum charge rate is 3.75 MW. That could grow to as much as 10 MW in the future. It is unlikely that one vehicle would take the entire rate at one time. The charging system would be able to charge multiple vehicles at once. Adding 3–10 MWs of load is not something that is often done overnight.  

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Early Engagement Is Key for Co-ops

“Engagement is the key recommendation for co-ops,” CFC Director of Utility Research & Policy Brian Sloboda explained. “Understanding what station host sites and owners are thinking and planning will be important to a seamless transition to electric transportation. Some sites will require minimal utility upgrades. But that will not always be the case.” 

Charging station owners should understand the cooperative’s resources in construction policies and its rate structures. But this is a two-way street, Sloboda said. “Co-op staff will need to understand each site’s potential utilization rate and possible incentives to help to pay for system upgrades. Co-op staff should also understand the use case of commercial trucks and buses and when they will be out on the road and when they will need to be charging.” 

Tesla continues to be the best-selling EV in the United States. One of its sales drivers is its proprietary network of over 16,000 Tesla Superchargers. Tesla has agreed to make 7,500 of those chargers available to drivers of non-Tesla cars. The agreement came in a deal with President Joe Biden’s administration as part of the federal government’s efforts to install 500,000 public chargers. The change will require hardware and software updates to the Tesla stations.  

Even with a large public charging network, it is expected that 80% to 90% of light-duty charging will take place at home. 

“These charge sessions can be managed by EV owners and the co-op for the benefit of both parties,” Sloboda concluded.