Creating an action plan for the implementation of EVCS in Pacific Grove

Lauren Bailey, Stephan Murgia, Joshua Norden, Ezekiel Avila, Bryan Jung, Mitchell Balce

Abstract
Our team worked with Pacific Grove to create an action plan for electric vehicle charging stations
(EVCS). The city acquired two ChargePoint CT4000 series Level 2 stations via grants through the
Monterey Bay Air Resources District and the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (Cal-eVIP).
The city is ready to implement their stations and reached out to the CSUMB Fall 2019 Sustainable City
Year Program (SCYP) to create an action plan that would delve into the capability of the current grid
infrastructure to take on more load as well as what the stations should cost consumers to use. We also
looked into standards regarding EVCS accessibility accommodations, the length of time users should be
allowed to use the stations during a single charge, as well as the use and limitations of advertising through
the station’s digital screen. Case studies, research, and communication were the tools used to create the
action plan best suited for Pacific Grove. Using the business model adopted by Carmel, a neighboring city
to Pacific Grove provides continuity between neighboring cities as well as covering the cost of PG&E’s
time of use rates. Because the city had an idea of where the stations would be installed we were able to
assess the feasibility of the current infrastructures ability to take on the load of two stations (7.2kWh, 24V
each). Based on the grid’s current loads the probability of installing the stations without upgrading the
infrastructure was high.

Introduction
The City of Pacific Grove expressed interest in implementing public electric vehicle
charging stations (EVCS). The city acquired ChargePoint CT4000 series Level 2 charging stations
and 5 years of maintenance through a grant from the Monterey Bay Air Resources District and the
California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (Cal-eVIP). Due to the steady rise of electric
vehicles on the road and Monterey area, the city is ready to install their first two chargers in the
city-owned, Fandango Parking Lot on 17th Street. The lot is centrally located just off of the cities
downtown area on Lighthouse Ave. Caleb Schneider, a Management Analyst for the City of
Pacific Grove’s Public Works department reached out to the Fall 2019 Sustainable City Year
Program capstone for assistance in creating a workable action plan for installing these chargers.
We had two main focuses for the action plan, what the cost to users should be, and assessing the
feasibility of using the Fandango lot.
The city hoped to stimulate the local economy with the implementation of EVCS. The idea
was to encourage users to spend time and money in the area as their vehicle charges. Another goal
was to cater to the growing demand for public stations. There are currently no public stations in
Pacific Grove. Charging stations in the city limits are found attached to hotels, inns, and other
private businesses for guests to use during their stay. Our goal for the project was to create an
action plan that could be used by other cities in Monterey County for the implementation of EVCS.

Background
There are three different charging levels for electric vehicles (Table 1). The first one is
level one charging. Level 1 charging is the slowest way to charge a vehicle. At 1.4kW users receive
roughly 4 range miles per hour of charging. At 1.9kW users receive only 6 range miles per hour.
Level 1 is the simplest way to charge an electric vehicle as there is no modification of the electrical
system needed within common residential infrastructure to install and use this type of charger.
The second level of charging is AC level 2. The input voltage jumps from a regular 120 volts (V)
used by standard outlets to between 220 to 240V. Level 2 chargers with 3.4kWh outputs give
users 10 range miles per hour while charges with 6.6kWh outputs give users 20 range miles per
hour of charging. Chargers outputting 19.2kW, allow up to 60 range miles per hour. AC level 2
chargers are more expensive to install in personal home than level 1 considering the electrical
modification necessary to support this level of power (AFDC 2019). These chargers can be
hardwired to the electrical panel, or they can be plugged into a dedicated outlet that has its own
breaker in the breaker panel. Finally, there is the fastest way to charge a car which is DC fast
charging. The two previous charging levels used alternating current to charge the batteries in the
car, however, the DC fast charging (DCFC) is where the charger is able to convert the alternating
current coming into the charger to direct current which can be put into the battery at a much quicker
rate. These chargers require 3 phase power at 208 or 480 volts. This is something that places may
not be able to handle as 3 phase power is usually what is being fed to big industrial warehouses
and other sorts of high drawing places.

Table 1 EVCS station specifications

Charging at these level 2 and DCFC chargers are not free and require payment either
through an online account or payment at the charger. The rate for these charges are determined by
the company who owns and sets up the chargers, or if they are maintained by personal or private,
the rates are set by them. To make the money that the companies invested into putting these
chargers in, the pricing can vary during peak times where there are more people on the grid say
like during the day when people get up to get ready for work or when people are coming home
from work. During these peak hours, the price of electricity in the Monterey Bay area can jump up
2 cents during the winter months and during the summer months can jump up 37 cents per kilowatt-
hour. Depending on the size of the battery in the vehicle, determines the cost of filling the “tank”
or known as batteries up with energy (Table 2). The time that it takes to charge the batteries also
depends on how big they are, but also the capacity of the batteries. The bigger the batteries and
longer the range, the longer it takes for them to get a full charge. Some places have free electric
vehicle charging, however, these are usually really popular and are filling up quickly as these are
at a public institution such as the city library or city hall.

Table 2 Common EV specifications

 Electric Vehicles (EVs) come with variations of charging ports. The four primary ports that
are currently in use are the SAE J1772 plug, used by most electric vehicles to charge, the Tesla
HWPC plug, specific to Tesla Vehicles, and finally, a few connectors that are not as commonly
manufactured, the CHAdeMO or SAE Combo CCS (Flemming 2016). The last two connectors
will sometimes require adapters to work correctly.

Public EVCS History

Electric vehicles have been around since the 1820s, yet they did not hit mainstream
popularity until 1900. But electric vehicles would lose popularity after the discovery of crude oil
in Texas, and the construction of better roads, taking them out of public interest for over 25 years.
Electric cars would not return to the public eye till the late 1960s, with the price of gas
skyrocketing, and with the debut of the Lunar Rover in the 1969 moon landing. EV began fading
away in the late 1970s, but would again achieve notoriety in the 1990s (Anderson 2019). In 1990,
the State of California proposes the zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate which would be
implemented by the California Energy Commission. The ZEV mandate would require automakers
to provide EV alternatives for gas engine cars (CEC 2019). This would result in a massive
pushback from automakers and would see the creation of vehicles such as the General Motors EV-
1(Who killed the electric car 2006). The EV-1 would only last a few years before being recalled
due to its unreliable battery life, and the cost of leasing. This would lead to yet another lull in
complete EV technology, as the ZEV mandate was reoriented as the ZEV program, which allowed
hybrid vehicles as an acceptable alternative to gas-only cara (CEC 2019). It would be these
vehicles that would cause the conception of the plugin level 1 charger.

It would not be until 2006, when a silicon valley startup, Tesla, would outline their plan to
build an electric sports vehicle. The Tesla roadster would release in 2008 and would be the first
electronic vehicle to be able to reach speeds comparable to most consumer vehicles, but the
roadster was priced at $100,000, locking most consumers out (Anderson 2010). The next few years
would see a multitude of electric vehicle releases from many different automakers. This
mainstreaming of electric vehicles would push the Department of Energy to invest in a nation-
wide charging infrastructure project, which would see the installation of 18,000 residential,
commercial and public chargers. Including chargers installed by automakers and other
private companies (Anderson 2010). With EV becomes more popular, the Department of Energy
invested in the creation of EV charging infrastructure with the implementation of a nationwide
network that would be constructed between 2009-2013. This infrastructure system was made up
of level 2 208 V charging stations. Today, electric vehicles have reached a mainstream consumer
following, and occupy both a common consumer and luxury market. Automakers such as
Mitsubishi, Ford, BMW, and Nissan have all produced EV oriented products.

Public Electric Vehicle Charging in California -

Electric vehicle charging stations will be very important in the coming years to mitigate
global emissions from the light vehicle fleet which are currently responsible for 49% of green
house gas emissions in California (Ramanathan, 2019). Municipalities should be at the forefront
of this movement especially in California since the state has a forward-thinking stance on how it
wants to move toward becoming more energy efficient across the state and a leader across the
nation. There are multiple reasons why cities should be providing EV charging stations within
their city limits. Electric vehicles are quieter than their fossil-fueled counterparts, do not emit
emissions that will pollute the air, and do not pose the risk of leaking oil onto the ground
(NYSERDA, 2019). Additionally, a city’s overall carbon footprint would be reduced, which
inevitably steers towards better air quality, long term revenue streams, and providing a valuable
service to its residents (Wong 2017).

Cases Studies of other Municipalities with EV Charging Stations

Santa Monica

The city of Santa Monica in Los Angeles County has made many strides in its efforts to be
carbon neutral by 2050, the city made this commitment in 2016. It has since then been increasing
its electric vehicle fleet and charging station infrastructure for its residents and electric vehicle
motorists. As of 2017 there were 83 public charging ports and 17 ports for city use only and 227
that were commercial or residential for a grand total of 324 in city limits. There are plans for
expansion to come as electric vehicle numbers grow and there become more need for the city to
put more into place. In their master plan by the end of 2020 there will be 300 public charging
stations in place throughout the city of Santa Monica.
As of now the city is offering free use of the charging stations they have in place but have
plans to start charging a fee. They have been researching a charging policy that would suit them
best. The options they have been considering are a flat fee per hour, fee per kWh, differential fee
per hour, and a fee per session. These are common fee procedures found throughout the EV
charging community. In terms of funding the city has to offer and will be applying for grants from
its utility provider Southern California Edison which has its own clean fuel reward program this is
a rebate program that will give money back to those who buy an electric vehicle, Santa Monica
provides a detailed list in the table below of ways to receive funding (Wong 2017).
San Luis Obispo

The city of San Luis Obispo (SLO) has teamed up with PG&E and Chargepoint Inc. to
install and profit from electric vehicles and its infrastructure. A total of 19 have been installed as
of February 11, 2019 with the availability of handicap spaces. Users are required to have a
handicap placard or license plate.
Charging stations can be used by electric vehicles and plug in hybrids for 1.50/hr for the
first four hours of charge. After this time frame the price jumps up to 4.00/hr. The high increase is
to promote turnover and availability if there are few chargers present. Individuals will need to be
a user of Chargepoint to use its units.
These charger stations are funded by PG&E’s EV Charge Network Program and the City’s
Parking Fund. The PG&E’s EV Charge Network Program initiative is by 2020 to install 7,500 EV
chargers. Public or private is inconclusive. The city of San Luis Obispo contributed $107,000 to
installing charging stations. Future plans for San Luis Obispo is to install chargers in the downtown
area to allow more access. The location of SLO is in between Los Angeles and San Fransisco
making SLO an ideal location along Highway 101 (SLO 2019).
San Luis Obispo is also attempting to have more electric vehicles. This can reduce gas
emissions, safer health standards, and lower the cost of living. Implementation of the Vehicle
Mobility Plan will start in 2021. 40 percent of vehicle miles will be electric by 2030 (SLO 2019).

Carmel

The city of Carmel is located within the south point of Monterey Peninsula. Carmel only
possesses two public charger station. One charger is located in the North parking lot of the Sunset
Center, southwest corner of Mission St. and 8th Ave. The second one is located in the Vista Lobos
parking lot, located on 3rd Ave. between Torres Street and Junipero Street.
Plug-in hybrids and Electric vehicles can use these chargers at their convenience. The city
charges $1 per hour for the first three hours. After the third hour the price jumps up to $5 per hour.
This is also encouraged and to promote turnover and availability. Through the app that is used
through the charger drivers will get a 15-minute warning that there will be a charge increase when
the fourth hour of charging will occur (City of Carmel 2019).
Pacific Grove
As stated in the intro, Pacific Grove began its implementation of electric vehicle charging
stations by applying for a grant from the Monterey Bay Air Resources Districts (MBARD). This
grant involved $15,000 of funding which was used to acquire 2 Level 2 Chargepoint EV Charging
Stations, and will be used for installation. Along with the $15,000 for installation and equipment,
the MBARD grant includes 5 years of upkeep for maintaining the two Level 2 chargers. Initially
the plan was to install the chargers on a municipal lot. This lot (Parcel no. 006294017000),contains
a trash disposal area in the corner which would be repurposed to hold either a transformer or
conduit that connects a nearby transformer (2019 meeting with Schneider). This is how the
charging station will connect to the grid which at the time is maintained and operated by PG&E.
The lot shown in figure 1 outlines a 95 stall area with 4 handicap stalls. Originally the lot would
have to allocate 4 stalls for electric vehicles plugged in to charge. In a very recent development
towards the end of our partnership, Pacific Grove obtained grants from the Central Coast Incentive
Project. The project was composed by California’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (Cal-
eVIP) which partners with regional entities (in this case Monterey Bay Community Power) to
distribute funding for electric vehicle infrastructure (Cal-eVIP 2019). Pacific Grove obtained
funding for the installation of two DC fast chargers (implemented on the previously mentioned
parking lot), and another Level 2 charger installation which will be placed within Pacific Grove’s
City Hall.
Figure 1, A Map of the First EV Implementation Site.

What we're doing

We were tasked with creating a workable action plan for the City of Pafic Grove to
implement their first set of municipally owned public electric vehicle charging stations. The City
feels ready to implement their first two Level 2 chargers for the ChargePoint CT4000 series. We
had two main focuses for the action plan, what the cost to users should be, and assessing the
feasibility of using the Fandango lot. We also include future installations, accessibility
accommodations, and advertising in the action plan. In order to create the appropriate action plan
for the City of Pacific Grove (PG) we worked closely with Caleb Schneider from the PG Public
works department and Dan Waters, a PG&E substation manager with 10 years of experience in
the Central California area.
We began by assessing the capability of the lot to take on two Level 2 chargers. The
transformers in the Fandango Lot are 4kV systems dating back to the 1970’s (2019 interview with
Dan Waters). This system is the lowest served by PG&E, all new infrastructure is using 21kV
systems (2019 interview with Dan Waters) The transformers are 3 phase capable of carrying
125kVa and 175kVa loads. Each kVa is equivalent to 1000 volts. The Level 2 stations planned
for the lot only require 24V each to operate. Based on the current loads on the Fandango
transformers there should be more than enough capacity to support the initial stations with no
further improvements made to existing infrastructure.
To tackle the issue of user costs we studied different public EV rates for Level 2 chargers
in Monterey County and throughout California. In order to effectively charge users our prices
would have to cover the time of use fees charged to the city. Each charger uses 7.2 kW per hour
of use. We were able to contact PG&E directly through their solar department, which handles
commercial EVCS rates, to gather information on commercial EV time of use plans and rates.
There are two commercial EV time of use plans, A6, for lots using 75kW or less for EV
infrastructure, and A10 for lots using more than 75kW (2019 phone call with PG&E solar dept.)
According to PG&E the A6 plan will cover the initial stations. The time of use rates for A6 are
based on Summer and Winter seasonal rates, with peak, partial-peak, and off-peak rates. Off peak
hours cover weekends and every hours not covered by peak and partial peak Monday-Friday.
Winter rates are charged using partial peak and off peak time of use per kilowatt hour (kWh).
Partial peak hours are 8:30am-9:30pm and cost 21 cents per kWh. Winter off peak hours cost 17
cents per kWh. During summer months peak hours are 12pm-6pm and cost 58 cents per kWh,
partial peak hours are 6pm-9:30pm and 28 cents per kWh, off peak cost 21 cents per kWh (Table
4)
Table 4 PG&E A6 Rates and Schedule

Creating a business model to reflect the ranges of these costs was difficult considering the
time of use rates during summer peak hours. Initially we considered catching users by the kWh at
the rate of 50 cents per kWh used. This quickly became infeasible when considering the average
user. Using kWh rates can be a somewhat confusing format for the common EV driver. Because
our chargers output 7.2 kW per hour this would leave the city fronting between $3.02 and $8.35
an hour to charge their EVs (Table 5). This isn’t a feasible business model for charging stations,
instead we looked to Carmel’s public EVCS rates.
 Table 5 Operational cost of two dual Level 2 stations

The City of Carmel charges $1.00 per hour for the first three hours and increases to $5.00
per hour after. Consumers using the ChargePoint application via their smartphone are notified 15
minutes prior to the fourth hour when rates increase to $5.00 per hour. We chose to use there
model for two primary reasons: using similar rates to a neighboring city creates continuity between
charging stations to relieve potential confusion to users and the chargers used in Carmel are very
similar to the Level 2 stations being implemented in the Fandango Lot. Using this model users
will be paying $1.00 to $8.00 to charge their EVs (Table 6). The rate increase is meant to encourage
users to vacate the stall to create availability for the next EV. However the Fandango Lot is usually
busy and near capacity with an existing 3 hour parking limit. Due to the potentially high demand
and a limited number of stations we needed to consider how long EVs should be allowed to park
and charge before vacating the stall for the next vehicle. Despite the pre-existing 3 hour limit, we
settled on limiting availability to 4 hours to allow for up to 80 range miles from charging (Table
1, Background). Should users continue to use the stations into the fifth hour they will be charged
$13.00 with a risk of an added parking ticket.
Table 6 Proposed cost to users

One of Pacific Grove’s goals when considering implementing charging stations was getting
users to spend more time and money in the areas surrounding Fandango. The main street of Pacific
Grove, Lighthouse Ave, hosts several small businesses, eateries, and “mom and pop” shops. The
central location of the charging stations should encourage users to engage the community while
their vehicles charge. To boost the exposure of local small businesses to users we would like to
limit advertisements featured on the screen of the charging station to local small businesses.
ChargePoint chargers can be used as an advertising tool via the screen consumers use to operate
the station.
We were concerned about the need for accessibility accommodations necessary for the
initial installment of stations. The initial level 2 stations will not require accommodations,
however the addition of two or more stations of any level would require the city to implement
accessibility accommodations through dedicated stalls and signage.
Our success
Initially, the infrastructure was available due to a grant from the Monterey Bay Air
Resources District through the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project. While the
infrastructure was present, the city of Pacific Grove did not no what direction they needed to take
to implement the EV Charging Station. Pacific Grove does have an electrician ready to install the
stations, but were missing the connection to the grid and their electricity provider, which is PG&E.
Our team began by attempting to figure out how to gather the required information needed to
properly install and connect the charging stations to the grid. Our team had the honor to talk to the
Ex-Electric Planner of Pacific Grove. Daniel Waters was the Electrical Planner for 10 years in the
city of Pacific Grove, before moving to his current job as Substation Asset Manager at PG&E.
We were able to hold a meeting between Daniel Waters and Caleb Schneider which led to a
successful understanding of the current capacity for the charging site area, as well as what the city
needs to do next. The connection of the charging stations to the grid seemed feasible in the eyes
of Daniel Waters, but the city needed to request specifics from their provider PG&E. To do this,
they need to request certain information from their account representative in PG&E. Daniel Waters
mentioned some specifics such as daily loads, and fortunately, the CAL-eVIP website has a list of
sample questions to ask the service provider. Our team is now in the process of ensuring the right
questions are asked by the city to ensure they can implement the infrastructure they had obtained
through the grant.
We were also asked to develop a business model, as the city would like to charge for the
use of the stations. After research and through the help of team member Lauren Bailey, we chose
the commercial plan A6 (See What we are doing). To mitigate the cost of the electricity output,
we have adopted Carmel’s model, where it is $1 for the first three hours and $5 every hour after.
The higher price of $5 after 3 hours is an incentive for customers to move and circulate services
for other vehicles. As we continue to gather information of daily loads from PG&E and as after
the charging stations are implemented, the price will be subject to change to fit the needs of Pacific
Grove.

Conclusion
Specifically in Pacific Grove, they hope to implement more charging stations in the next
decade, and to do so there will be challenges in retrofitting areas to be able to sustain such electric
infrastructure. While the EV Charging stations currently would take less than 4% of transformer
capacity (2019 interview with Dan Waters), there is a possibility of extension to go over
transformer capacity. Mitigation measures are possible in increasing capacity not only via
expensive retrofitting, but by replacing lighting with low wattage bulbs and improving efficiency
through low cost replacement.
Our experience within our collaboration between Pacific Grove has led the team to create
an action plan that is flexible and can be applied to municipalities as needed. We understood that
while there were some things in place such as site location and infrastructure, municipalities do
not have all the information needed, and it is certainly not all found in one place. Site Location,
Grants & Rebates, EV Charging Infrastructure and Site Capacity, Development, Regulation, and
business modeling make this project a very diverse effort that uses collaboration of many parties.
The California Electric Vehicle Permitting Guidebook was released by the California Energy
Commission which holds information municipalities can use regarding regulation for EV
infrastructure and vehicles, and also provide sources to mandated requirements needed in parking
structures and construction permitting (Erckle 2019). We collaborated with knowledgeable people
and sources that has helped close the gap of information needed to further pursue EV infrastructure
implementation.
The most recent development of wanted installations from Pacific Grove has led them to
understand that there are more technicalities and trivial details than they understood. They also
believed that PG&E would be assisting them more heavily in the project, which is not the case.
Pacific Grove is in the process of posting a Request For Proposal (RFP), which is when a project
and its needs are outlined and posted in the competitive market, which then get responses from
contractors interested in taking on said project. Pacific Grove requires more information on what
they need to do in their area regarding station design/detail, grid infrastructure, as well as the
intricacies for the permit application process (2019 meeting with Schneider). From our experience
this semester, it seems the city has much work ahead and it will be interesting to see how the
project will progress in the future.

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