WANT TO INSTALL
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON OFFERS TO FOOT THE BILL, IF SELECTED, WITH CHARGE READY PROGRAM. By Lynette Bertrand
EV
CHARGING STATIONS? Managers: If your community has been yearning for electric vehicle charging stations, read on.
Southern California Edison unveiled its Charge Ready program this summer. The $436-million program will add 38,000 new electric car chargers throughout SCE’s service area over the next five years. Through this program, SCE pays for all of the infrastructure, including undergrounding conduit and permits. That’s usually the most significant cost for installing EV charging stations in a community and what has been a deterrent in the past, said Mary Finn Parker, Multifamily Program Manager for Southern California Edison. Homeowners associations must still purchase the charging stations themselves, but SCE does provide a rebate that they can apply toward this cost. Finn Parker said a community must install a minimum of 4 ports to apply for the Charge
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Ready program. And the ports must be close together to make it economically feasible. “HOA communities don’t want to tell all of their owners to put in charging stations in their garages because if they do that, they overload our transformers and it’s now on the HOA dime to pay for upgrades,” Finn Parker said. What sometimes happens is that homeowners sometimes purchase 220-volt chargers and put them in their garages. The energy overload then blows up the transformer in the neighborhood, which ends up becoming a safety problem and a costly fix. “My neighbor has two Teslas and blew up their panel. They had no power and a big nightmare. They spent thousands of dollars on their home panel to upgrade it. This is a way to get around that. Edison will pick up the tab. We’ll pay for the transformation update,” Finn Parker said. Not every HOA will qualify. Once a community applies, SCE will come out to evaluate the property and decide what’s most economical
