Maryland officials are pumping the brakes on a program under which utilities such as Baltimore Gas and Electric installed electric vehicle charging stations.

The program enabled four Maryland power companies to use ratepayer funds to install chargers at government buildings across the state. But the Maryland Public Service Commission has ordered the utilities to stop installing new chargers, citing concerns about low usage and maintenance issues.

In the coming months, the roughly 5-year-old program will be reevaluated by the commission’s electric vehicle working group to determine what the next steps should be, said Benjamin Baker, a senior commission adviser and leader of the working group.

“It is a ratepayer incentive. It’s not free to put these out there,” Baker said. “So we want to make sure where they’re going is impactful.”

The reassessment could mean the chargers are placed elsewhere in the future, beyond just state, county or municipal government-owned sites such as libraries and offices, where they are located currently. Under the commission’s order, officials will evaluate whether the stations should go only in “underserved” areas.

“Is it appropriate to go broader? Or is it appropriate just to completely stop?” Baker said. “Let’s look at the whole thing as one large picture.”

For some, the bigger picture seems to show that utilities shouldn’t be in the EV charging market to begin with. In addition to BGE, the program includes Pepco, Delmarva Power and Light, Potomac Edison and the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative.

The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, which represents utility ratepayers in the state, pushed for the PSC to force utilities to divest from the chargers entirely — perhaps by selling them to private companies, People’s Counsel David Lapp said.

Data shows the chargers haven’t been profitable for the utilities, Lapp said. But the utilities want to continue installing the EV infrastructure because ratepayers will pick up the tab — and pay interest, Lapp said.

“They’re losing money on these charging stations. So we want to stop the bleeding, which is why we recommended that the commission require them to divest,” Lapp said.

Power companies should be involved in the EV conversation, Lapp said, including by ensuring EV chargers can easily hook into the electric grid, and managing the electricity demand increases that could come from EVs. The PSC requires them to do so with other programming under the same umbrella.

But Lapp believes the utilities do not need to be installing chargers at the expense of ratepayers, who pay their power bills irrespective of income level, unlike taxes. For low-income ratepayers already facing high costs, the program is an unnecessary burden, and could be addressed instead by government or private industry, Lapp said.

With the ability to make their investments with ratepayer funds, power companies also have an unfair advantage relative to private companies in the EV charging marketplace, said Ryan McKinnon, spokesman for the Charge Ahead Partnership, a coalition including businesses working to expand the nation’s EV charging network.

“That’s really what private companies want to do when it comes to EV charging: They simply want to invest with confidence and know that they won’t be undercut by utilities using ratepayer money,” McKinnon said.

In a statement, BGE spokesman Richard Yost pushed back against the notion that utilities shouldn’t be installing chargers.

“When BGE started this program, it was in response to the State of Maryland requesting utilities to develop a charging network focused in areas that the private charging market hasn’t covered,” Yost wrote.

It’s “no surprise” that charger usage figures have been “modest,” Yost said. EV use remains modest, but growing, and some of the chargers were intentionally placed in less-trafficked areas, Yost said.

“This initiative also aims to enhance accessibility in communities by placing charging infrastructure where the private market was less likely to, ensuring that areas with less foot traffic still benefit from reliable charging options.”

BGE has spent about $15.5 million to install the chargers, which include fast chargers and slower Level 2 chargers, Yost said. The stations generate revenue, but the utility’s latest PSC filing showed many were not profitable. Of the chargers operating this year, 271 are Level 2 and 87 are fast, according to the filing.

Of the 372 chargers commissioned by BGE, 127 are placed in “environmental justice” communities, defined as communities that are underserved and overburdened by environmental pollution.

BGE’s chargers also are helping Maryland reach its goal of getting 300,000 zero-emission vehicles onto the road by 2025, by improving charging options. In May, Maryland surpassed 100,000 EVs registered in the state, a 59% increase compared with the start of 2023, Gov. Wes Moore’s administration said in a news release.

The chargers’ location could be one of several factors contributing to their low usage and profitability, said Lanny Hartmann, a longtime EV driver and blogger who resides in Columbia.

The PSC’s pilot program was limited to government property, which may not be the most convenient places for EV drivers to fuel up. By contrast, other chargers, such as Tesla varieties, are often at convenience stores that are open 24 hours and allow drivers to purchase food or drinks while they wait for their vehicles to charge, Hartmann said.

Paying is also complicated at the BGE chargers, Hartmann said. There’s no credit card slot, so drivers must use a mobile app called Shell Recharge, or purchase a prepaid card they can swipe. If the charging station is having network issues and cannot connect to the app, a driver can’t use the charger, unless they have a prepaid card, Hartmann said.

In 2022, Hartmann visited all 69 fast chargers that BGE had installed through the program. He found that 49 worked, but the remainder were either inoperable, offline or capable of delivering only a low-power charge. He was met with blank screens, error messages — and even a broken cord, he said.

“I had high hopes back in 2018 that the utility would run the charging stations to the same level as it does the electric system to my home,” Hartmann said. “I imagined — and it turns out this is not the way it actually works — that if a charging station was reported down in a part of town, a BGE or Pepco truck would roll in and be there to fix it.”

BGE and Pepco, both Exelon companies, use a subcontractor to perform preventative maintenance and address problems with the chargers, according to a BGE filing to the commission in August.

After his initial test, Hartmann revisited 13 problematic chargers, and eight remained dysfunctional. That meant those eight chargers had fallen below a federal standard that EV chargers should be operational for 97% of the year.

After Hartmann’s evaluation, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill in 2023 applying the 97% “uptime” standard to the utility charger program, among other modifications.

About 34% of BGE’s chargers currently fall below the 97% standard, Yost said. Overall, BGE’s network of chargers has an approximately 94% uptime.

“BGE strives to surpass the 97% uptime goal for EV chargers and we recognize that we can do better for our customers,” Yost wrote. “Some uptime issues were exacerbated by supply chain issues which caused longer than usual lead times to obtain replacement parts. BGE also has an RFP in progress to evaluate charger network providers to potentially identify a solution that is a better fit for our needs.”

Aside from utilities, Maryland’s EV charging network — which includes about 1,700 public charging stations — is expanding with the help of federal programs, such as the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program, which will place chargers at key points along major highways in Maryland and across the country.

Through tax credits and rebates, the state government also is working to encourage drivers to purchase electric vehicles in lieu of gas-powered cars and trucks, in part because rapidly reducing emissions from vehicles is necessary for Maryland to meet its legislatively mandated climate change goals.

Under the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, Maryland must reduce its global-warming emissions by 60%, relative to 2006 levels, by 2031, and reach net-zero emissions by 2045.

In addition to a quick escalation in electric vehicle purchases, more Marylanders will need to turn to public transportation, and micromobility options such as bikes and scooters, to get around, according to the state’s climate plan, which was authored by the Maryland Department of the Environment in collaboration with the Center for Global Sustainability. And to support a growing number of electric vehicles on the road, new charging infrastructure will need to be installed, and existing gas stations likely will need to be retrofitted to support charging stations, according to the MDE plan.

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