California to gain 38,000 charging points
In California, businesses, government agencies and other organisations are now able to participate in the $436-million Charge Ready program. The program from Southern California Edison (SCE) will see the addition of approximately 38,000 new electric car chargers throughout the SCE service area over the next five years.
The $436-million program was approved last year. Through Charge Ready, SCE undertakes the installation and maintenance of the supporting charging infrastructure for electric cars. Site hosts are typically are non-residential SCE customers who own, operate and maintain qualified charging stations.
“As SCE is preparing its electric grid to serve the increase in transportation electrification, more charging equipment is needed to give EV drivers and fleet operators the peace of mind that they will be able to charge whenever they want,” said Carter Prescott, SCE director of eMobility and Building Electrification. “Today, we are asking our customers to join with us to ensure that an effective framework is in place for a clean air future for our communities.”
With this program, SCE will continue to focus on providing charging infrastructure at workplaces, public parking lots, schools, hospitals and destination centres. The utility company also puts an added emphasis on housing complexes.
SCE is an investor-owned electric utility company. The Charge Ready program is meant to be the largest electric passenger vehicle charging infrastructure program in the nation. The program has the target of locating 50% of the chargers in state-designated disadvantaged communities, or economically-impacted communities that bear the brunt of the negative effects of air pollution.
The program is an expansion of the Charge Ready pilot that the utility launched three years ago. During the pilot phase, SCE partnered with businesses, local governments and other organisations to add more than 1,800 EV chargers at more than 100 sites.
Last year the utility launched a program for larger trucks, buses and off-road industrial equipment called Charge Ready Transport, with the aim of adding charging to support at least 8,490 medium- and heavy-duty EVs over a five-year period. This program involves funds of $356 million and is similarly modelled after the Charge Ready pilot.
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