ALLENTOWN, Pa. — As electric vehicles become more popular, the infrastructure needed to support them is lagging, officials said Thursday.
Lehigh Valley Planning Commission held a workshop, “Planning + Pizza: Deploying Electric Vehicle Infrastructure,” aimed at collecting feedback about where best to deploy EV infrastructure throughout the region.
About a dozen local officials and business leaders from across the Valley participated.
"That's always been an interesting conversation to try and have — where is appropriate siting for these, both the residential and the local use, but also the regional perspective for people using the highway systems.”Craig Beavers, Palmer Township’s acting director of planning
“Chargers are a point of frustration a lot for people who own EV vehicles, and there’s an infrastructure lag,” LVPC Transportation Planner Evan Gardi said.
“EVs are coming. They’re coming fast. We need to prepare for this infrastructure, but often we’re left in these charging deserts.
"People get a lot of charging anxiety with not being sure if there's a charger in the location they're going, and that can cause some problems.”
Craig Beavers, Palmer Township’s acting director of planning, said he’s an EV driver, but not a homeowner, which can make charging difficult.
“Being in that kind of dual role, it's always unique trying to figure out how to best find a charger and get my vehicle charged with what's in existence,” Beavers said.
“So that's one thing that I've always been trying to promote, especially getting involved with this process, is where's the best way to kind of help people in a similar category as myself, who do not have a home charger to use, so they can adequately fuel an electric vehicle.”
Beavers said Palmer officials have worked to determine where chargers would work best in the township.
"We've been trying to figure out locations in public spaces for our municipality — where we can site them, at our municipal building, at our parks and trail heads,” he said.
“So that's always been an interesting conversation to try and have — where is appropriate siting for these, both the residential and the local use, but also the regional perspective for people using the highway systems.”
The NEVI program
The workshop was part of the third phase of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, or NEVI, program.
Part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the program is aimed at making EV charging more accessible to all residents across the United States.
In mid-April, the state Transportation Department announced the opening of three new federally funded EV charging stations through NEVI, bringing the commonwealth’s total to 11.
“We’ve been a national leader in the NEVI program, and we will continue to get stuff done for the people of Pennsylvania.”PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll
“Governor [Josh] Shapiro has set a clear directive to get things done for Pennsylvanians, and the PennDOT team is meeting that,” PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll said in a news release.
“We’ve been a national leader in the NEVI program, and we will continue to get stuff done for the people of Pennsylvania.”
Since the first NEVI-funded station opened in the commonwealth, charging stations have delivered more than 13,000 charging sessions.
That powered more than 1.5 million estimated miles driven and reduced CO2 emissions more 700,000 pounds, officials said.
PennDOT’s 511pa.com includes a map with EV chargers across the state, including about 150 in the Valley.
“The community charging portion, Phase Three of the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program, is really to determine accessible locations for EV charging infrastructure throughout our community, so it's accessible to everybody,” Gardi said.
“It's understood that a lot of people have at home charging, but this is kind of to fill those gaps so people that might not have access to at home charging.
"And it's really where the globally accessible locations and thoughtfulness around them are important.”
‘Not building these chargers’
After a brief introduction to the program Thursday, there was an activity, asking participants to rank their Top 3 community-use cases for EV chargers.
The list included on-street charging, public parking lots, parks, event venues, hotels, schools, medical facilities, retail spaces, public buildings and more.
“We're going to take all this information and look at it from our lens, and then we work with PennDOT pretty closely. And we're gonna create a list of areas around the Valley that we see people focusing on."LVPC Transportation Planner Evan Gardi
“The answers that you all give us, we can form a priority communities or locations list of where people in the Lehigh Valley really want to see the infrastructure expanded,” Gardi said.
“We are not writing an EV implementation plan. We are not building these chargers. We're not selecting projects where these charges will be built, and we're not expanding the utility infrastructure.
“We're really just looking at where the infrastructure needs to be improved to support the future of EV charging, and where stakeholders, like everybody in this room, really want to see that infrastructure.”
Working in groups, participants discussed where EV chargers would most benefit Valley communities, taking into consideration the time it takes to charge, as well as how businesses could benefit.
One area most of the groups ranked higher were parks and recreation facilities, as well as public buildings, such as municipal offices or libraries, and retail spaces.
However, there was some variation, with medical facilities, as well as hotels, included in some groups’ rankings.
“We're going to take all this information and look at it from our lens, and then we work with PennDOT pretty closely," Gardi said.
"And we're gonna create a list of areas around the Valley that we see people focusing on."
After the list of community case uses is forwarded to PennDOT, officials there will create a statewide list before working with federal officials.
The LVPC has a survey available for residents interested in EV infrastructure, open through Friday.
