The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) is in the final stages of rulemaking to ensure the state has enough publicly accessible electric vehicle charging sites to support Gov. Phil Murphy’s goal of putting 330,000 light duty EVs and plug-in hybrids on the road by 2025.

The board last week took public comments on rules that flesh out a plan outlined last year that defines who should build the chargers, how accessible they must be to the public and when the electric distributions companies (EDCs) should develop locations to ensure even distribution of chargers across the state.

The proposal seeks to foster infrastructure development through “shared responsibility” — shared costs — between stakeholders, including electricity distribution companies and private companies looking to develop charging sites. The plan seeks to ensure that charging stations are developed not only in areas where relatively high usage is expected, but also in more isolated areas with an expected lower use, and in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

With speakers including charging site developers, electricity companies, environmentalists and the auto retailers trade group, the hour-long hearing underlined the complexity of the task.  While speakers were generally supportive of the rule’s basic framework, they also expressed a range of concerns, for example, about whether the proposed application process could be streamlined and how flexible it would be.

Ezra D. Hausman, an independent consultant representing the state’s consumer advocate division, suggested the BPU require a reporting process for stakeholders to provide information such as where chargers are installed and whether they are “serving all the communities that they are supposed to be serving.” He suggested the BPU encourage the use of “smart chargers,” which can automatically collect data that could be used to track charging patterns to see if efforts to encourage off-peak charging are working.

“This kind of information will all be crucial to assess programs to guide policy developments,” Hausman said.

At the heart of the discussion was ta chicken-and-egg dilemma: Drivers are reluctant to buy EVs if they don’t believe charging points are widely available. Yet a key obstacle to increasing the number of charging locations is that too few electric vehicles are on the road to make the needed build-out economically viable. That dynamic is heightened by the higher price tag of EVs compared to gas-fueled vehicles.

“It’s not the availability of EVs in the marketplace, or the lack of desirable EV options that are keeping consumers from buying an EV,” said Jim Appleton, president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers (NJCAR), adding that about 40 battery-fueled and hybrid vehicle models are currently on sale in New Jersey. “It’s price, and it’s charging infrastructure.”

Slow EV Uptake

Behind the focus on increasing EV charging numbers is the state’s 100% clean energy target by 2050, a goal that will require a reduction in carbon emissions of 80% from 2006 levels. The transportation sector is critical to the effort because officials estimate it generates 43% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The state wants at least 400 DC fast chargers at 200 or more locations by December 2025 and at least 1,000 Level 2 chargers — those with a 240-V electricity source — by the same date.

States are scrambling to get more EV charging stations up and running as they strive for aggressive carbon emission reductions that rely on a dramatic uptick in EV adoption. Researchers told the California Energy Commission last summer that the state would need to install millions of chargers to meet its goal of having 5 million EVs on the road by 2030.  New York Public Service Commission in July approved about $700 million to be spent in the next five years on installing more than 50,000 light-duty electric vehicle charging stations.

New Jersey appears to be on track to reach or exceed its charger goals. The state has 434 DC fast chargers at 104 locations, and 996 Level 2 chargers at 489 locations, according to the State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). That growth has been driven in large part by state incentives, such as the “It Pay$ to Plug In” program, which awards up to $200,000 in funds from the state’s Volkswagen settlement to projects that install two or more DC fast chargers.

But, even with this growing charger network, the state’s EV count is well short of the goals. New Jersey has only 40,000 plug-in vehicles on the road, according to NJCAR. And that figure is held down by the relatively short range of electric vehicle batteries and the paucity of charging stations, said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey.

“Inevitably, people will say, can I afford it and where will I plug in?” O’Malley said. “There are not enough places to plug in right now. Range anxiety is real for every EV driver in the state.”

The BPU on Feb. 17 approved a package of electric vehicle programs submitted by Atlantic City Electric. The package includes incentives to cover the installation costs for 1,100 privately owned charging stations, and for chargers set up in multifamily buildings, employee parking lots and facilities for company vehicle fleets.

A few weeks earlier, the board approved an agreement that will enable PSE&G to spend $166 million over six years to continue building New Jersey’s electric vehicle infrastructure. The utility will offer rebates to 40,000 residential customers who install home EV chargers. It will also provide incentives to make multifamily buildings, government facilities and publicly accessible parking lots charger ready and will provide funding and upgrades to make high-traffic corridors ready for DC fast chargers.

The public comment period on the draft rule ends on April 12. A final decision by the board expected some time after.

Stimulating Charging Station Development

A central element of the BPU’s charging infrastructure project is ensuring the stations are accessible and evenly distributed around the state. DEP has identified areas that need EV charging stations to address range anxiety and travel needs. The BPU’s plan would require utilities to provide private developers with maps that show locations well suited to charging stations because of underutilization of the grid.

Under the shared responsibility framework, utilities would be responsible for installing wiring and backbone infrastructure for what the BPU proposal calls “make-ready locations,” funded with ratepayer dollars. Private site developers would pick up the tab for the charging station equipment, such as power outlets, enclosures and point-of-sale equipment.

Locations that do not attract the interest of private developers would be designated as “areas of last resort,” with special rules to ensure that charging points are developed there. If no private developer is interested after a period of 12 to 18 months, utilities could offer incentives to cover half the installation cost to attract developers. In some circumstances, a utility could develop a charging site itself, providing the location is more than 25 miles from another charging station.

Josh Cohen, director of policy at Greenlots, a D.C.-based provider of charging software and services, urged the board to “streamline” the last resort process to speed up development of these projects, which, he said, have a built-in delay of 12 to 18 months because of the waiting period.

Several speakers backed the BPU’s plan, but suggested the rules be put in place as BPU orders, which could be rewritten easily to accommodate shifting circumstances, rather than codified as state rules

“EV charging policy, and its development, is in the very early days,” said Michael Krauthamer, a senior advisor to the Alliance for Transportation Electrification. “Many changes are expected. We have seen this happen in other states … Not because the initial plans weren’t well thought[-out] but simply because of the evolutions that are happening in the marketplace.”