Salisbury to add EV chargers

SALISBURY — Eversource Energy approved the Town of Salisbury’s application to install two electric vehicle chargers in the parking lot of Town Grove in Lakeville last week, making Salisbury the latest town—joining Millertion, Falls Village, Sharon, Canaan, and others—to bring EV chargers to municipal land.

Watching EV chargers spring up in towns throughout the Northwest Corner prompted a Salisbury resident and EV owner to suggest that Salisbury get in on the action. The Salisbury Economic Development Committee took up the proposal with gusto.

“It kind of came down to looking at our neighbors, and seeing what they’re doing,” said Robert Schaufelberger, the Committee’s vice president, who has taken on the role of managing the pre-install phase of the town’s bid for chargers. “There are quite a number of EV users in the town already. We’re trying to stay competitive. We want to offer visitors and residents whatever sort of resources we’re able to provide.”

Green Money, Dirty Power

For towns in the Northwest Corner, the EV installations’ biggest draw are the economic incentives administered under Eversource’s Connecticut Electric Vehicle Charging Program, which makes installing Level 2 chargers a relatively cheap and easy proposition for homes, businesses, and municipalities.

The electricity delivery company’s contribution to charger installation can come out to $20,000. For Salisbury, that means that the build-out of the charging stations is expected to cost $10,873; five years of network fees and warranty costs add another $5,390.

“So the money is on the table,” said Schaufelberger. “It’s ours to take if we can put together a proper proposal [for Eversource].”

The money that Eversource is providing for these installations will be reimbursed to them by Connecticut’s Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA) under their statewide Electric Vehicle Charging Program, established July 14, 2021.

The goal of the state program is a “self-sustaining zero emission vehicle market,” one of a number of “zero-emission” and “decarbonization” goals that the state is planning to meet by funding electric alternatives to oil and gas in homes, businesses, and transportation.

While it isn’t possible at this point to say precisely what the energy sources are for the electricity that Eversource delivers to Connecticut, the data is available for Eversource’s power delivery in New Hampshire, which passed a disclosure law in 2010. In 2022, 87.12% of the energy Eversource delivered came from non-renewable sources like oil, coal and natural gas, and an additional 8.6%, considered “renewable,” from burning wood and other biomass, which is also not a zero-emissions method.

Compared to the average of all New England power sources used in New Hampshire last year (25% renewable, 75% nonrenewable), the difference in emissions is striking: the power delivered by Eversource produced 968.82 pounds per mega-watt hour of CO2, whereas the average of all New England power sources used in New Hampshire produced 624.65 lbs/mwh.

Level 2 Chargers

Among EV owners, there is some frustration with the eagerness to install Level 2 EV chargers in public parking spaces; a Level 2 charger is far less practical than a Level 3 charger for someone passing through.

Level 2 EV chargers offer a 240-volt connection—the same amount of power as a clothes dryer. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Level 2 chargers can charge a plug-in hybrid EV in 1-2 hours, and a battery-powered EV to 80 percent from empty in 4-10 hours—the high end of that spectrum being occupied by the more affordable EVs that are already in use around country. In other words, to get a full charge from a Level 2 charger, most EVs have to charge overnight.

The efficacy of short-term charging varies from car to car—the 2023 Audi E-tron Quattro can get up to 22 miles from one hour of charging; a 2023 Ford F150 Lightning can get up to 39 miles; whereas a 2019 Toyota Prius Prime can get up to 13 miles from a solid hour of charging. (On a full charge, almost all EVs can travel at least 100 miles; new models tend to have an all-electric range of 200-300 miles.)

However, the Level 3 charger, which requires a 480-volt electrical source, is a much bigger undertaking for the town: Salisbury, for example, would have to replace entire power lines in order to make Level 3 chargers on town property viable. The Level 3 charger is also bigger, more complex and time-consuming to install, and exponentially more expensive. But, it can charge a new EV from empty in about 30 minutes, or about 300 miles in an hour.

“We’re looking for a way to try this out with minimal cost, effort, or risk to the town,” said Schaufelberger. “We didn’t want to be trenching under concrete or pavement.”

Charging at Town Grove

The Committee and their consultant, Artis Energy Solutions, took that into account when they chose Town Grove as an optimal site for the town’s first EV chargers. Particularly during the summer, said Schaufelberger, “people might like spending a couple hours there.” Of course, in summer, visitors would need to buy a “stickerless” day pass to park at the chargers.

The other factors that played into the Committee’s decision were the site’s walking distance from shops and restaurants, the fact that the chargers won’t take up parking spaces that are too in-demand, and it’s proximity to an accessible electrical connection with sufficient amperage.

“We’re just dipping our toes into this world, right?” said Schaufelberger. “We’re only committing to a single charger. We want to learn from how it does at the Grove as well as from our neighbors in surrounding towns.”

This article originally incorrectly stated that by working with government decarbonization programs, Eversource is able to grow its market for electricity with little direct investment. In fact, Eversource invests in maintaining and strengthening the grid in support of increased electrification, and as well as in clean energy technology and renewable resources, including geothermal, battery storage, offshore wind, and solar. The article inaccurately implied that Eversource, which said it complies with the Connecticut Renewable Portfolio Standard, deals excessively in energy derived from non-renewable sources.