PG&E filed an application with the California Public Utilities Commission on Monday to build roughly 25,000 new electric vehicle charging stations across Northern and Central California over a five-year period.
If approved, PG&E said the $654 million plan will be the largest deployment of electric vehicle charging stations in the U.S. and that 10 percent of the chargers will support disadvantaged communities.
There are currently more than 60,000 electric vehicles registered in PG&E’s service area, representing more than 20 percent of all electric vehicles nationwide, according to PG&E.
The new chargers would take about five years to build and would be provided at no cost to the site’s host. PG&E plans to maintain ownership of the infrastructure involved, hiring contractors to install and maintain the chargers and manage customer billing.
The cost of the plan would be passed on to all of the utility’s customers. PG&E estimates that a “typical residential customer” will pay an extra $0.70 cents per month from 2018 to 2022, averaging roughly $42 per household over the five-year period.
Tony Earley, president and CEO of PG&E, said in a statement that the utility company hopes the project will accelerate the adoption of plug-in vehicles throughout the region.
Dave Brooksher, Bay City News
