The University of 海角换妻 recently announced people looking to charge their electric vehicles on the Storrs campus 鈥� and regional campuses 鈥� will now have to pay $3 per hour.
The school鈥檚 move away from roughly a decade of offering free charging comes as electric vehicle 鈥� or EV 鈥� registrations in 海角换妻 have more than doubled since 2020, according to state data.
With more EVs on the road, there鈥檚 a need to scale up charging. And some older EV chargers 鈥� whose initial installations were subsidized 鈥� are now in need of repair and replacement.
All that has UConn and nearby towns that run 鈥渓evel 2鈥� chargers (those that are faster than a typical wall socket but slower than DC 鈥渇ast chargers鈥�) asking: What do they cost?
鈥淚t's really difficult sometimes to delineate,鈥� said Tom DeVivo, mayor of neighboring Windham.
DeVivo, who drives a hybrid and said he uses a phone app to find EV chargers when looking to top off, said it鈥檚 not just the cost of electricity that towns need to consider.
鈥淭hings break,鈥� DeVivo said. 鈥淜ids go by and unwind them and then the car pulls up and drives over the plug. And it鈥檚 not vandalism so much, but they do break.鈥�
There鈥檚 also the way some municipal EV chargers are wired, which DeVivo said can make even accounting for the electricity that flows into cars plugged in outside the Town Hall a challenge.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e tied into one meter. So all the lights, all the plugs, everybody's computer 鈥� everything in Town Hall is on that one meter,鈥� DeVivo said. 鈥淗ow do you break that one out unless you have separate meters to read it?鈥�
Calculating the cost of 鈥榗harging to charge鈥�
In Windham, DeVivo and other town officials are working to determine what it should cost to plug in an EV and charge up.
鈥淪omeone said, 鈥榃hen are you going to start charging for charging?鈥欌�� DeVivo said. 鈥淚 anticipate by the first of the year we'll have some charging stations on a fee-based use. And some probably won't be.鈥�
DeVivo said charging stations at town schools, for example, would likely remain free for now.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Mansfield, Town Council members recently voted to charge 36 cents per kilowatt hour to use EV chargers in town. A town spokesperson said on average, a user is plugging in for about three hours and getting charged roughly $6.50 for that time. City officials of about $1,000 to $2,000 to run each charger.
The move comes one year after the town used money from Eversource and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to expand the number of EV charging stations operated by the town.
Ryan Aylesworth, Mansfield Town Manager, echoed the concerns of DeVivo 鈥� electricity isn鈥檛 free and EV chargers require constant monitoring and maintenance.
鈥淭he fee schedule adopted by the Town Council is modest for the convenience of these charging services, and the revenues are intended to offset the operating costs incurred by the Town,鈥� Aylesworth said in a statement.
Eastern 海角换妻 State University in Willimantic has nearly a dozen EV chargers that are free to use and open to the public. The school said there are currently no plans to add a fee.
At nearby UConn, spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said in an email that revenue from the $3 payments will be deposited into the university鈥檚 parking fund and used to cover the costs of installing and maintaining the charging stations.
鈥淎lthough we have been fortunate to receive some grant funding to install charging stations on campus, those grants did not cover the cost of fuel, maintenance, and the eventual replacement cost,鈥� Reitz said. 鈥淭he revenue from the new charges will go to those purposes.鈥�
She said any net proceeds would go into student financial aid programs.
UConn has more than 50 active charging stations, including 10 at regional campuses. Reitz said the school intends to build out another seven locations at a cost of about $40,000 each.
Mansfield has installed 32 EV charging stations with two more coming soon, officials said.
鈥淲hen you combine Mansfield鈥檚 stations with those provided by UConn and a few privately-owned chargers in parking lots, suddenly Mansfield becomes a very EV-friendly community,鈥� Aylesworth said.
What makes a fair price?
Barry Kresch, president of the EV Club of 海角换妻, said he鈥檚 seen chargers 鈥� and the incentives to build those chargers 鈥� rapidly expand since he bought his first EV in 2012.
鈥淚t鈥檚 become affordable to install them and more places are,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n the past they have often been free [to use]. But that鈥檚, in my experience, less so today.鈥�
As more cities and towns add fees to EV chargers, Kresch said, prices should be kept modest and fair. One way to do that? By charging per 鈥渒ilowatt hour鈥� versus by the hour.
鈥淭hat we don't penalize slower-charging cars,鈥� he said.
Which begs the question: What鈥檚 a fair price?
Kresch said he hopes 鈥渢he rates are somewhat similar to what you might otherwise pay at home鈥� for electricity, but that he鈥檚 seen fees ranging anywhere from 10 cents a kilowatt hour to as high as 30 or 40 cents.
For the non-EV geeks out there: a kilowatt hour is, basically, a measure of energy. The typical 海角换妻 Eversource electric customer pays roughly 35 cents at home. For United Illuminating, that . Those rates are expected to drop soon after reaching historic highs due to energy constraints from the war in Ukraine.
Kresch said whatever fees cities and towns decide on, the money should be used for maintaining EV charging stations, not redirected to fill other budget gaps. And he said fees should vary based on where the chargers are located.
鈥淚 personally would like to see public charging offered at subsidized rates in distressed communities, where there tends to be a lack of access to home charging,鈥� Kresch said.
Any community considering adding a fee to public charging stations needs to strike the right balance between serving EV drivers and taxpayers, said DeVivo, the mayor in Windham.
鈥淚 want to find the number that鈥檚 reasonable and fair,鈥� DeVivo said. 鈥淪o [drivers] aren't looking at saying well, I can't afford it. I'm not going to park there 鈥� but you don鈥檛 want to make them so inexpensive that the town鈥檚 going to lose any money. We need to find a middle ground.鈥�
DeVivo said the town runs a few EV chargers downtown near a brew pub. And what he鈥檚 witnessed there is just one more illustration of another variable making cost hard to calculate.
鈥淲e find they鈥檙e always being used,鈥� he said.
People plug in, walk away from their cars and engage with downtown, he said. And how do you put an exact price on that?
鈥淚t is a way to help economic development to have available charging stations.鈥� DeVivo said. 鈥淵es, the Town Hall pays electricity. But the customers, the clientele more for the brew pub, seem to use them, than residents from the town using Town Hall.鈥�
