Last week the Chinook Observer had an excellent article about electric vehicle (EV) rechargers. Level 1 and Level 2 rechargers are used by residences, hotels and business where the user is amenable to a 2-to-3-hour recharging time. Level 3 chargers can recharge an EV in 30 minutes, but also consume a lot of power and are typically located along well travelled highways.

There are over 104,000 EVs registered in Washington. Clark County PUD, which has the most advanced EV planning, reports that EV registrations are growing at 50% per year and lots of those cars are coming to Pacific County for recreation.

It is time to get a head of the curve on this growing trend and start planning for additional EV chargers in the Pacific County PUD service area. As a candidate for the PUD Commission, I would support creating EV recharging tariffs for public access recharging stations. Electricity tariffs are utility charges designed to collect revenue from customers to ensure cost recovery for the utility, and fairly apportion the cost of service to different customers. The tariff design approach for home charging should be different than tariffs designed for public access recharger station which often provide nonresidents access to PUD power.

Residential rechargers should still be charged under the residential tariff because the recharger is part of the residence. A publicly available EV recharger should be charged a higher rate to ensure that energy and network cost associated with the EV recharger are recovered by the PUD. In this way, tariffs would not result in an undue cost shift to Pacific County residents who do not use or own an EV recharger. Charging demand for power in public recharger applications tends to be less flexible to time variants (i.e. charge at night) and the visiting EV driver is interested in short dwell times at the recharger. This will translate into different power load profiles on the local grid.

In the long run, different tariffs for EV recharging stations will be the most effective way to support utility cost recovery.

DAVE MCCLAIN

PUD Commissioner Candidate