Home / Cities / Partner City / Raleigh & Research Triangle Region, North Carolina
Raleigh’s plug-in vehicle deployment efforts got started in 2009 when Raleigh and the Research Triangle Region joined Project Get Ready, an initiative to help U.S. cities prepare for plug-in vehicles. The city assembled an interdepartmental team to tackle issues, such as streamlining the EVSE permitting and installation process. The team included representatives from the city’s departments of transportation, sustainability, development services, permitting, administration, and public affairs as well as from utility Progress Energy and energy advisor Advanced Energy. This core group of stakeholders developed five key objectives:
The City of Raleigh, Progress Energy, Advanced Energy, and RMI are collaborating to kick-off the readiness initiative. Working groups are forming now. The Raleigh project is quickly expanding to collaborate with the entire Triangle region. Advanced Energy is coordinating the Research Triangle Region’s efforts.
Raleigh is currently focusing on sustainability mapping, which will incorporate charging station locations and is pursuing ways of allowing for input of locations, either through permit application or other sources.
Raleigh is presently working on data collection from the charging stations without utilizing a third party vendor and utilizing our energy management date system. Raleigh is obtaining feedback from municipal departments on potential locations for future EVSEs on city properties. Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill are all in various stages of progress towards the installation of their first charging stations: mapping locations, creating RFPs, and submitting the appropriate documentation to their respective town councils. Most municipal installations will be small scale, funded by EECBG grant monies, though some larger projects (e.g. public parking decks) are funded in their construction budgets. All three towns are also engaging with local businesses and other public institutions for coordination of station locations.
NC Get Ready! is a new initiative being piloted in the Triangle area, supported by a consortium of cities, government officials, industry leaders and not-for-profit organizations, including core team members Advanced Energy, Progress Energy, Duke Energy and the Rocky Mountain Institute. The project will facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles in NC by accomplishing five key objectives:
Nissan will be bringing a number of vehicles to a ride and drive event in early March.
Raleigh does not have an EV specific plan at this time.
The City of Raleigh has successfully installed 3 publically available Eaton charging stations downtown. Actions have spurred other local entities to begin installing infrastructure, including the installation of 21 charging stations in a newly constructed parking deck. Raleigh is planning for the installation of additional charging stations.
Raleigh applied its existing “stand alone” permitting and inspection process to EVSE installations. This is also called a “walk through” process because the permit is completed as the applicant is walked through the process by permitting personnel. Getting a permit takes about one hour, and inspections can be performed the day after installation. As a result, the entire assessment, permitting, installation, and inspection process for a simple home-based EVSE project can be completed in as few as two days. Raleigh views the process as an opportunity to train permitting staff and electricians about EVSE. It plans to switch to an even faster, online permitting process as staff and electricians become well versed in EVSE installations.
Raleigh’s model for permitting and installing single residential EVSE stations is comprised of a six step, streamlined process outlined, below. More-complex installations (e.g., installing multiple charging stations at one location) have different requirements, including load calculations and a detailed plan review. For more information, visit the city’s Development Services Guide, and watch instructional videos about installing residential and public EVSE.
Step 1: Identify
Plug-in vehicle customers contact automakers, dealers, or their utility, who can provide a list of licensed electricians to help with EVSE installation. For example, all Nissan LEAF purchases are facilitated through the Nissan LEAF website. The website sends information about Raleigh’s LEAF customers to Nissan’s EVSE provider, AeroVironment, and AeroVironment contacts the customers about EVSE options. As more vehicle choices enter the Raleigh market, the manufacturers of those vehicles likely will partner with EVSE providers to serve their customers.
Step 2: Assess
Plug-in vehicle customers can obtain a home assessment from an electrician in an EVSE provider’s preferred-contractor network (such as AeroVironment’s network for Nissan LEAF customers) or any other licensed electrician to determine whether the capacity of their electrical panel is adequate for installation of EVSE. Results of a survey by utility Progress Energy indicate that Level 2 (240-volt) EVSE could be installed in the majority of homes without upgrades to the homes’ utility service. However, informing the local electric utility about EVSE installation is still encouraged.
Step 3: Permit
The licensed electrician or EVSE customer/homeowner visits one of two City of Raleigh inspection centers to obtain a permit. The process to apply for and receive a permit takes approximately one hour and costs $74.
Step 4: Install
The licensed electrician or the customer/homeowner installs the EVSE. In the rare cases in which a utility service upgrade is required, the electrician or customer contacts Progress Energy to coordinate the upgrade. The customer can give authority to Progress Energy to work directly with the electrician, which can expedite the process.
Step 5: Inspect
The licensed electrician or customer/homeowner calls the City of Raleigh to schedule an inspection. If the call is received by 4:00 p.m., the inspection is performed the next day. The EVSE is approved for use as soon as it passes the inspection.
Step 6: Integrate
Progress Energy has been an active participant in Raleigh’s plug-in vehicle efforts. Through modeling and planning, it is confident that Raleigh’s current grid can manage near-term EVSE-related demand. Residential appliances, such as EVSE, are not metered separately, so energy used to charge a plug-in vehicle is simply added to a customer’s electricity bill. However, customers can opt into time-of-use electric rates on a whole-house basis, which could promote off-peak plug-in vehicle charging.
Progress Energy is another of Raleigh’s plug-in vehicle leaders. Its efforts are structured around the Edison Electric Institute’s Industry-Wide Plug-In Electric Vehicle Market Readiness Pledge
, which it helped develop. The following are the elements of the pledge and examples of Progress Energy’s related activities.
The use of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles is hindered by a number of factors, some based in fact and some in misconception. Automobile manufacturers face an uncertain market in the best of economic times. They have limited data to project the number of vehicles to be sold in any given area, and the infrastructure to fully support the vehicles is currently lacking. A primary objective of NC Get Ready! is to create an environment that fully supports the use of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, minimizing risk for automakers and ensuring availability for green-conscious consumers in our area.
Vehicle availability is not synonymous with adoption. Vehicle cost will initially be higher than
conventional vehicles, which may hinder prospective buyers or raise concerns for dealerships.
Consumers are skittish of committing to technologies they perceive as unproven and the availability of convenient fueling will be a key concern. As previously stated, NC Get Ready! will develop the necessary infrastructure to remove that obstacle and open the doors for electric and plug-in hybrid.
Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles must be charged while parked. To create infrastructure,
consideration to charging requirements must be addressed in terms of where vehicles may be parked.
Three categories have been identified: Residential, Private Sector and Public Sector.
A number of initiatives are being considered in response to these needs. Though there may be variation in cost for the vehicle or parking space owner, the infrastructure for the charging stations is consistent.
To ensure proper installation and safeguard consumers, training and certification will be provided.
“Plug-In Wired” will certify building contractors in wiring needed for charging stations, allowing them to create structures that are “charge-ready” even though a charging station itself may not be installed.
“Plug-In-Ready” will certify contractors on the installation of the actual charging stations, easily amending the certified wiring schematic. This also allows the expense of creating a charging infrastructure to be
spread out, minimizing the upfront costs that can sometimes slow adoption of new technologies.
Along with infrastructure, support will also be needed for maintaining and servicing the vehicles. While these vehicles are projected to have lower maintenance costs, a trained workforce must be available to service them. A major aspect of this project is to enable maintenance-providers with the tools and training necessary to support these new vehicles. It is reasonable to anticipate job growth in both these areas, given that a new market and product line(s) have been established.
To fulfill that market will require a commitment to public education, helping consumers understand the vehicles’ benefits and overcome concerns that hinder their use. The media must be engaged to report on infrastructure development, and public support from influential leaders in the state and nation is critical. Also, it is vital for initial adopters to have a positive consumer experience that will contribute to widespread acceptance. It must be easy for consumers to purchase vehicles and access charging stations, be aware of relevant tax credits, get charging stations installed and become educated on the location of charging stations outside the home.
Measuring the impact of these new technologies on consumers, businesses, economic prosperity and our environment is a key component in their sustainability. It is anticipated that an influx of new technology, as well as the products and services associated with it, will encourage job growth. But just as important, we must assess improvement in air quality, decrease in associated health risks and reduction in foreign oil dependency to measure their true success.
To ensure feasibility, understand requirements and build consensus, program administrator Advanced Energy will facilitate the following working groups. The collaborative input from business, industry, government and academia will greatly contribute to the project’s viability.
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Updates: Feb 2011
Planning is under way for holding another round of technical trainings for the Research Triangle region, intended for both inspector and installer audiences, in April 2011.
As of mid-2010, Raleigh plug-in vehicle and EVSE deployment was minimal. However, four new public charging stations (purchased with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) were in place by the end of 2010 with 15 to 20 more coming by mid-2011. Free charging will be offered at these stations for two years, and the city will collect data on their use. In addition, the city is working with private property owners, such as shopping malls, to discuss locating charging infrastructure on these properties. Progress Energy and Advanced Energy have received grants to install additional charging infrastructure throughout the Research Triangle Region and will collect data from these stations.
Raleigh is anticipating the arrival of plug-in vehicles as they are made more widely available in 2011, and the city fleet plans to add plug-in vehicles. About 140 privately owned plug-in vehicles are anticipated in the Research Triangle Region in the near term. The city received a grant to convert seven Toyota Prius hybrid electric vehicles to plug-in operation. City personnel meet monthly with Progress Energy to discuss plug-in vehicle promotion and readiness. Progress Energy is working with automakers and EVSE providers to develop a system for notifying Progress Energy about plug-in vehicle purchases in its service area. Advanced Energy is developing a charging station installation document to guide contractors through the EVSE permitting and installation process. Raleigh will host a high-profile EPRI plug-in vehicle conference in July 2011.
Updates – February 25, 2010
NC State University Sustainability Office & Office of Energy Management interviews City of Raleigh Sustainability Initiatives Manager in a series of podcasts.
Updates – January 5, 2010
The Raleigh team is developing a permit application process for Electrical Vehicle Service Equipment (EVSE) Installation, to be used in commercial and residential areas. Additionally, they are working on prequalifying guidelines for potential EVSE locations.
Finally, the team is developing in-house training sessions on potential installation scenarios for electrical inspectors and creating an incentives plan for the charging locations.
Updates – 10/15/09
Raleigh is moving forward with their EV plan. They have recently received a Clean Cities grant which will help with EV procurement. Also, Raleigh held a conference this past summer called Electrify NC to bring together different supporters and stakeholders in the area’s EV movement. This was a great first step in identifying barriers and, more importantly, solutions.
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For more information, or to discuss this initiative in more detail, please contact:
Jeff Barghout
JBarghout@AdvancedEnergy.org
(919) 857-9006
Katie Drye
[...] Triangle (North Carolina) is getting ready. The Triangle initiative is expanding from the Project Get Ready Raleigh initiative. [...]
Posted by Project Get Ready » Triangle (North Carolina) March 5th, 2009 at 11:06 am[...] me that the City of Raleigh announced some sort of electric car partnership in February. Called Project Get Ready, Mayor Meeker announced that experimental charging stations would be installed around downtown, [...]
Posted by Electric car « Mark Turner Dot Net May 18th, 2009 at 10:23 amI went to the conference at NCSU yesterday. Here is my Big support for the charging stations!!! Please put them at museums. I think if the public has to stop and recharge they might like to recharge where there is something to see and of course, this will help the museums in the beginning. I see charging stations linked all across NC at little museums and tourist attractions all over. I’ll bet there is something to see in NC every forty miles from mountain to see, vir to sc west and east.
Posted by Donna May 29th, 2009 at 10:58 amInside the new parking garage next to the Marriott City Center would be a great place for a charging station. It’s close to theater, hotels, and government offices. It would make elecric trips to our State Capitol practical from a large area of the state.
Posted by Bill Bucklen June 4th, 2009 at 7:27 am