Electric car drivers are going to get a real charge out of one of Barnstable's upcoming projects in Hyannis. The town is planning to add up to 37 charging stations in public lots around Hyannis for the sustainable vehicles, making it a leader among Cape Cod towns for the convenient technology.
Town Council has unanimously approved $37,000 of general fund reserves toward the project. The local share is tied to two grants: $264,409 under the Massachusetts Electric Vehicle Incentive Program Public Access Charging Program for 34 electric vehicle charging stations for public use and $15,097.80 for three electric vehicle charging stations for town fleet vehicles. portable car charger for electric car
Barnstable Director of Asset Management David W Anthony and Environmental Sustainability Manager Sean Hogan are leading the project.
"The upgrade and expansion of the public-facing EV charging resources has been a topic discussed for several years by the town’s Infrastructure and Energy Committee and Asset Management," Anthony and Hogan noted in an email outlining the plans.
The program is associated with an Eversource initiative supporting installation of make-ready heavy infrastructure to accommodate EV charger installations. The utility is funding all work to survey, design, contract and install the heavy cables from nearby power points to concrete pads in parking lots where the state-funded EV chargers will be installed. The total Eversource contribution is expected to be $1,246,059.
Regionally, EV charging infrastructure is currently not up to supporting an increasingly electric fleet, according to Anthony and Hogan.
The expansion project represents the culmination of a 4- to 5-year effort to upgrade the town's existing EV charging stations.
"Anecdotally there's between 3 and 4 million electric vehicles on the roads today with increases every single year in the number that are being sold," said Anthony.
The value of having more of the technology available here "is especially true when one considers the Cape as a vacation destination. Visitors can’t rely on home charging while they are visiting, so public charging is crucial," Anthony and Hogan pointed out.
The town installed three dual port charging stations in 2013 under a federal grant at Barnstable High School, the town hall parking lot and the public parking lot on North Street behind Tap City Grille and Tumi restaurants.
Over time they had become obsolete, were frequently broken and needed to be replaced, according to Anthony and Hogan.
But when they were operation, they were in high demand and were often full.
Several years ago, a three-phase plan was created to expand the technology, but it was slowed by the pandemic. The first phase was to upgrade the existing chargers with new technology, the second was to expand the number of chargers in the current location to take advantage of the already built wiring and power, and the third was to expand to new locations in municipal parking lots.
In 2022, the town hired Hogan, who went to work seeking state and federal grants to get the phased plan back in action. Upgrades to the first three existing dual port chargers were done last year. Now, phases two and three are combined into one effort.
Hogan said the town currently has six charging ports that it is managing — two at town hall, two in the West End lot on North Street and two at the high school that were installed last year with a grant. They are free to use now, but the town is working on an app to charge a fee per kilowatt hour used.
The plan is to start at .25 cents per kilowatt hour, plus a $1 connection fee for the Loop brand of charger the town is using.
Anthony and Hogan said the fee is to support costs, not to make a profit. Additionally, they want to keep the cost as low as possible to serve people who don't have access to home charging because they live in apartments.
All of the lots where additional stations will be installed are municipal and were selected based on their proximity to local attractions. The plan calls for installation of level 2 charging stations, though the town has applied for funding for a few level 3 stations that would require no town match. If the town is approved for level 3 chargers at some of the sites, the number of level 2 chargers may be reduced.
In the world of EV charging stations, level three chargers offer the most power and most rapid charging. Anthony and Hogan noted that level 2 capability "works best when people are doing other things."
The municipal lots, they said, "are generally filled by people who go to visit a store and take the opportunity to charge. The chargers can thus add an incentive to visit locations in town and they help drive economic activity."
The charging stations will all offer the same type of port — J1772 — and will work with any EV with the right adapter.
The timeline for installation is aggressive, as the chargers need to be in the ground by the end of September to comply with the grants.
Anthony and Hogan said they are trying to meet that requirement, but coordination with the utility and equipment selection and availability, and the busy summer makes it a challenge and they may need to ask for an extension.
They are hopeful the project will be complete by the end of this year. Going forward, the stations will be overseen as part of the town's asset management operations.
Meanwhile, according to information on the town website, a number of municipalities on Cape Cod, through the Cape Light Compact, are looking into a regional contract for EV charger maintenance, with Barnstable taking a leading role in this contract development since it will have the highest number of EV chargers installed on municipal lots on Cape.
Heather McCarron writes about climate change, environment, energy, science and the natural world. Reach her at hmccarron@capecodonline.com, or follow her on X @HMcCarron_CCT.
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