By Michael Bielawski
On Wednesday lawmakers in the House Transportation Committee discussed a bill that is meant to further nudge Vermonters into electric vehicles…or give up on driving altogether.
The bill H.693 is sponsored by Rep. Sara Coffey, D-Guilford, and others. It states, “Every reasonable effort shall be made to obligate and deploy the monies appropriated for expenditure under this section in fiscal year 2025 in order to achieve a pace of electric vehicle adoption and transition away from personal vehicle ownership necessary to meet the emissions reduction requirements of [the Climate Action Plan].”
The bill is overall intended to improve transportation infrastructure. It states it is to “increase the annual appropriations to the Agency of Transportation for the Better Roads Program and the Municipal Highway and Stormwater Mitigation Program within the Municipal Mitigation Assistance Program in fiscal year 2025.”
More infrastructure for EVs
The bill asks for more public money for electric charging stations. Its purpose is to “codify the existing State goals for electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) along the State highway network and requirement that the Agency of Transportation annually report on the State’s efforts to meet those goals and also require that the Agency report on efforts to increase EVSE in the State and the operational status of EVSE available to the public.”
Ian Degutis who is Traffic Operations Engineer for the Agency of Transportation put into perspective what time and money will be needed for creating and upgrading electric charging infrastructure.
He told the committee, “It’s going to take a while, there are wait times in terms of the electrical infrastructure that would be needed for each of the sites, in some cases 40 to 52 weeks, and there are the transformers [other electric infrastructure]” he said. “In most places we will need to upgrade sites to a tune of $60,000 to $80,000.”
A part of the bill calls for “appropriate $3,000,000.00 to the Agency of Commerce and Community Development for a continuation of the EVSE [ electric vehicle supply equipment] Grant Program in fiscal year 2025.”
Degutis noted that adherence to federal policy is part of this initiative. He stated, “the latest iteration of these goals was to reflect the national electric vehicle infrastructure program which is the federal program that says we ought to have a fast-charger or multiple fast-chargers within a mile of the interstate or the designated highway corridor.”
Another proposal in this bill is more funds for electric bikes. It calls to allocate $250,000 to the Agency of Transportation for an eBike Incentive Program in the fiscal year of 2025.
The challenges of EV chargers on the grid
In addition to cost challenges, there are challenges on the electric grid as well. In a study published by Science Direct in August of 2023, it states some of these challenges.
The study states, “The rapid increase in charging high-power electric vehicles (EVs) poses challenges to the power system, including load profile distortion, voltage deviation, frequency imbalance, harmonic injection, distribution system component capacity overloading, excess power loss, and grid instability. This study quantitatively analyzes the impact of EV charging on the power system. With an increase in EV penetration from 25% to 50%, the peak power demand on the system rises by 166%.”
The study continues that newer “smart charging systems” will eventually help alleviate much of the grid overload.
The whole roughly 1-hour committee hearing can be heard here.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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