Public EVSE Charging Stations, Retrofitting, and Who is Responsible?

[sgc]

So, I was perusing this site

Electric Fueling Stations in California
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/prog...te.php/CA/ELEC

looking for J class charging stations for my VOLT and found VERY few available. Hundreds of old style inductive stations are available and sitting idle/mothballed.

I contacted a So. Cal. Edison representative and asked if SCE was going to retrofit the public stations...like at the local mall and the county run public parking lot in my city. His response was no, but there are government funds available for private entities to do so.

I also contacted a GM representative who filled me in on why SCE can't get involved with this process. Bascially the California Public Utility Commission does not allow investor-owned utilities to own and operate EVSEs - they can only deliver electrons. I learned that the upgrades of the older systems will be the responsibility of the owner, which is likely the host. So either the host will be motivated to retrofit or partner with the Chargepoint (Coulomb) or Blink (Ecotality) folks to work with the host to do this upgrade privately.

Then I found this page on the site:
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/prog...ws.php/CA/ELEC
that has all the programs and points of contact in CA that should get this massive retrofit program going. After all, retrofitting previously installed infrastructure is cost and time effective in re-establishing a network of public charging stations. This approach would be more valuable to most drivers than installing new EVSE facilities on Interstate 5 from Washington to California.

Hopefully the private EVSE industry will take advantage of these opportunities quickly.

I encourage any Volt owners in CA to check out these sites, and contact the relevant parties to encourage and cajole the stakeholders begin the retrofit process!

[voltage692]

In general, all plug in car owners are going to need to ban together to petition and lobby for charging infrastructure. Isn't that something Chelsea Sexon's group should be doing? As a plug in owner for 6 months, I haven't heard a peep from that group in terms of banning owners together to get things done. If that's what they do, they need to get on the ball and quit spending time talking about the EV1.

[sgc]

Entertaining observation, voltage692.
Here's another site to find charger locations:
http://www.evchargernews.com/

[WVhybrid]

Entertaining observation, voltage692.
Here's another site to find charger locations:
http://www.evchargernews.com/

For a list of charging station databases, please see the following posting:

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread....4449#post54449

That link, and links to many other useful posts about the Volt, can be found by clicking on the "ChrisC FAQ" link in my signature.

WVhybrid

ps. If you find a thread you think should be added to FAQ, drop ChrisC a PM.

[mmalc]

In general, all plug in car owners are going to need to ban together to petition and lobby for charging infrastructure. Isn't that something Chelsea Sexon's group should be doing? As a plug in owner for 6 months, I haven't heard a peep from that group in terms of banning owners together to get things done. If that's what they do, they need to get on the ball and quit spending time talking about the EV1.

I receive regular communication from Plug In America and see several campaigns. Perhaps if you want to get involved you should actually take some action yourself? It's not clear why you expect them to contact you: I certainly wouldn't expect a third party to have access to my contact details without my permission. I strongly suspect that in other circumstances if you were bombarded by invitations from other organisations or companies you would be wailing about privacy rights.

[voltage692]

I expect to see them active on sites like this forum.

I receive regular communication from Plug In America and see several campaigns. Perhaps if you want to get involved you should actually take some action yourself? It's not clear why you expect them to contact you: I certainly wouldn't expect a third party to have access to my contact details without my permission. I strongly suspect that in other circumstances if you were bombarded by invitations from other organisations or companies you would be wailing about privacy rights.

[mmalc]

I expect to see them active on sites like this forum.

Waaa. Waaaaah! How ironic; a Texan who wants to be spoon fed by charities. How about getting off your virtual backside and putting in some effort yourself? If this is an important issue to you, do something about it, don't complain that no-one has contacted you about it.


I don't want anything beyond a perhaps an occasional heads-up about an item of interest from someone who is a forum member. There are too many companies and other organisations astroturfing social sites; this is a forum for the Volt. I wouldn't want every special-interest group whose interests intersect with ours actively pushing their agenda here.

[Noel Park]

sgc,

I agree that this would be much more useful than stations along I-5. Every time I see one of these old stations with the paddle, I just have to shake my head. I am going to LAX this PM. According to the web search I did, the 240v stations there still have the paddles. Can anyone confirm that? They supposedly do have one 120v J1772 setup. Whoop-de-doo! Can you believe it?

[voltage692]

It's a business -- they want money from members and they sell their electric car movies.

If they really want to push electric cars, the auto companies are already doing their part to make them, the government is doing their part for incentives to buy them and install chargers, and consumers are doing their part to buy them.

An org like the Plug In need to exert the influence of the current and future car owners to give businesses that nudge they need to install the charging infrastructure by getting visibility for the electric car owners. Otherwise, that group is pretty much useless.

I have a Volt, so I don't need the charging infrastructure. I am just commenting on how they are missing the boat. That's my right as a Texan

Waaa. Waaaaah! How ironic; a Texan who wants to be spoon fed by charities. How about getting off your virtual backside and putting in some effort yourself? If this is an important issue to you, do something about it, don't complain that no-one has contacted you about it.


I don't want anything beyond a perhaps an occasional heads-up about an item of interest from someone who is a forum member. There are too many companies and other organisations astroturfing social sites; this is a forum for the Volt. I wouldn't want every special-interest group whose interests intersect with ours actively pushing their agenda here.

[mmalc]

It's a business

No, it's a charity.

An org like the Plug In need to exert the influence of the current and future car owners to give businesses that nudge they need to install the charging infrastructure by getting visibility for the electric car owners. Otherwise, that group is pretty much useless.

And that's what they're apparently doing. They don't need to post here every day to do that.