California Approves $437 Million for SCE’s Electric Vehicle Charging Program

The California Public Utilities Commission on Aug. 27 authorized a budget of $437 million to fund the installation of about 38,000 charging ports under Southern California Edison Company’s Charge Ready 2 program. The decision adopted changes that make the program more cost effective and better align with California’s electric vehicle goals than the utility’s initial proposal of $760 million. The modified program costs about 40 percent lower to ratepayers with only a 20 percent cut in the number of charging ports, lowering the estimated cost per port. California has a goal of 5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030.

The Charge Ready program, launched in 2016 and expanded in 2018, represents the largest single-utility EV charging initiative in the U.S. Under the second phase, 50 percent of the investment must be allotted to disadvantaged communities and 30 percent in multi-unit buildings, in an effort to address barriers to transportation electrification in these segments. The commission approved a new construction rebate to meet additional installation and charger costs that exceed CALGreen or local building codes in these segments.

Participating customers must take part in demand response initiative and accept time of use pricing, which is designed to align EV charging with grid conditions. The commission also encourages charging stations to use time-based rates in the prices charged to EV users.

The decision also approves a Make-Ready Expansion Program, which builds upon the Charge Ready Pilot with a stronger focus on disadvantaged communities and multi-unit buildings. The term “Make-ready” applies to list of infrastructure upgrades, such as higher voltage electric panels, conduit, and wiring, to facilitate installation of EV chargers.

In July 2018, SoCal Edison asked the commission to approve the second phase of its Charge Ready program, deploying 48,000 charging stations at an estimated cost of $760.1 million over four years. SCE filed its application for a two-phase Charge Ready program in 2014, with a plan of deploying up to 1,500 charging stations at a cost of $22 million through a one-year pilot in the first phase. The commission authorized the first phase, and subsequently an additional bridge funding of the same amount to support at least 1,000 chargers until the consideration of the phase II application. As of the first quarter of 2020, the utility had reserved funding for 1,301 charge ports at 81 sites through its initial funding and 1,454 ports at 67 sites through the bridge program.