Minnesota electric utility Xcel Energy aims to build a large EV charging network funded by price hikes, potentially including customers who don’t own EVs.
According to the report of KSTP.comXcel Energy in August submitted a proposal to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to build, own, and operate its own network of 730 charging points by 2026. The project will cost about $170 million, according to the report. proposed, which also says Xcel needs an additional $27 million from bidders between now and 2026 to help fund it.
As with previous utility-based charging infrastructure proposals, this could be controversial as Xcel would raise electricity prices across the board, whether or not customers own electric vehicles. What that really means is that some customers will pay higher rates to fund infrastructure they won’t be using.
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The proposal states that “the charging stations will be included in the price basis, meaning that Xcel Energy customers will pay for the construction and maintenance of these facilities.”
Xcel also notes in the proposal that the 730 site figure equates to 1,470 connectors and 194 megawatts of charging capacity, making room for a plethora of fast chargers. That would be a major upgrade for Minnesota’s EV charging infrastructure, but the KSTP.com report notes that the proposal has been met with significant resistance due to the potential for price increases.
One of the largest such utility-based programs to date is an additional California program 38,000 EV chargers in 5 yearsoperated by Southern California Edison but in this case done with state money. Other California Projects involves the widespread deployment of chargers that are likely to affect those paying fees, but they are not publicly attributed as a primary method of funding them.
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It is unclear how many of these deployed chargers will be eligible under federal charging networkaims to have 500,000 electric vehicle chargers by 2030, and funding is expanded by meeting federal government requirements.
At the same time, there has been a surge in billing network announcements — some of which are related to infrastructure legislation. Examples include a word network GM and EVgoan extra 1,000 chargers at 200 TravelCenters of America, Mercedes network plan for 2,500 fast charging ports and one Volvo-Starbucks network.
