By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Kentucky’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plan to build a network of EV charging stations across the state was discussed during a legislative committee meeting Tuesday.
John Moore, the lead representative from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet on the project, told members of the Interim Joint Transportation Committee it is part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Funding Program, or NEVI, in which Kentucky, will receive $69.5 million in federal money over five years to construct the network, with an additional $17.4 million being raised through a public-private partnership with the state and private enterprises, for a total of $86.9 million.
The first part of the network will be built along interstate highway and parkway corridors, with other major roads across the state in the last part of the five-year period, according to Moore.
“In order to build out those corridors, requires four, 150-kilowatt ports, which are no more than 50-miles apart along each corridor,” he said. “In order to access the finding, we must have a federally approved plan, which is scheduled to be approved by the end of September. At that point, we should have access to the first two years of federal funds, which is a little over $20 million.”
The chargers, Moore explained, would be what are known as Level 3, or “Direct Current Fast Charging” systems, which take 30 minutes to give you power for 250 miles of driving. This is opposed to Level 2 or “Dryer Outlet” charges, that take ten hours to deliver the charge for 250 miles, or the Level 1 “home” chargers which come with the cars, that can take 48-72 hours for that 250-mile charge.
Electric Charging stations
“It’s estimated that the first phase will take two to three years of the available funding to roll-out,” Moore told the panel, “After that we’ll be able to move into other sectors.”
He says the network is forecast to meet the demand by the year 2026.
“What we’re looking to do is strategically deploy that so the below-ground infrastructure will meet what the demand will be in 2030. This will allow us to roll-out and allow for more cost-effective upgrades.”
Moore noted, “This is subject to change as we get more information from the industry, more information from the public, as well as more guidance from the feds, which has been, unfortunately, slow to come.”
He added, “We’re looking to roll these out this fall, and hope to have the first stations come online next spring. This is all subject to supply chain issues, as a number of states will be in the market for these chargers at the same time. We have heard of no issues yet, but nobody has had their plans approved yet.”
