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Maryland Approves Nearly 1,000 ("Limited") Utility-Owned Public Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

January 14, 2019

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Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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In an order on various proposed electric vehicle programs from the states' utilities, the Maryland PSC authorized the utilities to own and operate public electric vehicle charging stations.

"[T]he Commission finds that it is in the public interest to allow the Utilities to own and operate a limited number of public charging stations to jumpstart the deployment of a public EV charging network, reduce EV owner range anxiety in the near term, and lay the foundation for a competitive market to develop in this space," the PSC said in its order

BGE, Delmarva, and Pepco were authorized to install, own, and operate approximately half of the EV chargers proposed under their respective sub-portfolios in their petition as follows:

BGE          500
Delmarva     100
Pepco        250

Potomac Edison was authorized to proceed with its "full complement" of requested chargers under the public sub-portfolio (59 chargers), in order to establish a statistically significant sample size compared to the other utilities

Cost recovery will be through distribution rates

The utilities had originally proposed, in aggregate, over 1,600 utility-owned public EV chargers

The PSC directed the EDCs to locate public EV charging equipment only at property leased, owned, or occupied by a unit of state, county, or municipal government for public use and, to that end, the utilities shall work with state, municipal and local government entities to determine the siting locations for these public EV chargers

The PSC, denied, however, Potomac Edison's proposal to own about some 200 EV charging stations located at customer-specific sites (multi-family and C&I customer sites). Instead, as at the other utilities, PE was directed to offer various incentives for customer-ownership of an EV charger (incentives were also approved for residential customers at all of the EDCs)

The PSC directed each utility to develop and file tariffs on residential EV-only TOU rates to encourage off-peak EV charging

The PSC also approved continuation of BGE's current whole-house TOU rate, which includes TOU SOS rates. Pepco will also commit to continuing its whole-house TOU rate and Delmarva will introduce a similar TOU rate in its service territory.

The PSC denied the Technology demonstration projects proposed by the PHI utilities. Delmarva and Pepco had each proposed three ratepayer-funded Technology Demonstration Projects: (1) DC Fast Charging with Energy Storage, (2) Virtual V2G Demonstration, and (3) Public Charging Interoperability. Additionally, the PHI Utilities proposed to apply, "an updated version of [the] Green Rider to the Electric Service for public Level 2 and public DC Fast Chargers," which, through RECs procured from the Maryland Renewable Portfolio Standard Mix, would allow PHI to create a network of "carbon-free" Level 2 and DC Fast Chargers.

"The Commission agrees with Staff that the proposed Technology projects, at least with respect to the PHI Utilities, are too experimental and the benefits unknown so as to justify the costs to ratepayers at this stage. For this reason, the Commission denies Delmarva’s and Pepco’s Technology Demonstration sub-portfolios," the PSC said

Case 9478

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