EVgo charging station in parking lot (AdobeStock_284263050 Sundry Photography)

Tom Belair

The State of New Hampshire has announced the availability of money from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust, part of which will be used to increase the number of publicly available, fast-charging Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations along key highway corridors, many of which are located in New Hampshire Electric Cooperative (NHEC) service territory.

If you have been considering installing an EV Charging station, and have a business or municipal account along one of these corridors, you may be eligible for 80%, or even 100%, reimbursement for installing and hosting a public charging station.

An informational session was held via webinar on Wednesday, October 6, 2021 at 1:00 PM. Interested parties should check out the State of NH website to learn more about that session or to hear about any updates. See all the RFP deadlines and details at www.des.nh.gov/VW-mitigation-trust.

A Quick Summary of the RFP

Funding Amount: ~$3,000,000

For: 50+ kW Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) and co-located Level 2 electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) on key travel corridors in New Hampshire*.

With more than 150,000 charging ports available to drivers, ChargePoint is one of the largest EV charging networks in North America and Europe. (Steven Bullock, courtesy of Voltrek)

Reimbursement Levels: Up to 80% of eligible costs may be reimbursed from the NH VW Trust for selected proposals, or up to 100% of eligible costs for EVSE located on state or local government-owned property.

Installed by: The Contract term shall be from the effective date of the Contract until five years from the in-service date of the last (if award is for multiple stations) charging station installed under the Contract.

Where: Eligible Project Locations (Section 3.2)

Eligible locations for EVSE projects under this RFP include sites that serve the following corridors:

1. US Route 3 from the junction with US Route 2 in Lancaster, NH to the Quebec border

2. US Route 2 from Lancaster, NH to the Maine border

3. NH Route 16 in its entirety

4. US Route 302 from I-93 to the Maine border

5. Interstate 93 from the Massachusetts border to the Vermont border

6. Interstate 89 from Concord, NH to the Vermont border

7. 

   Highland Center, AMC Pinkham Notch. ReVision Energy collaborated with Nissan and Plug In America and distributed free level two chargers throughout the region. Eleven of them were given to AMC. (Revision Energy)

   NH Route 11/103 from New London, NH to Claremont, NH

8. NH Route 9/US Route 202 from the intersection with I-89 south to the Vermont border

9. NH Route 101 in its entirety

Working with your Utility (Section 2.5). All Applicants must consult with the electric utility company providing service for each proposed site, and submit completed DC Fast Charger Utility Application and Electric Vehicle Preliminary Site Feasibility Assessment Information forms for each site. Applicants must provide the utility a minimum of 10 weeks to complete the form.

NHEC is available to help business and municipal members who are interested in pursuing this opportunity. Because each project will require time to determine how to provide electricity to your site, please try to let us know as soon as possible. For questions, feel free to contact NHEC Commercial Accounts Administrator Chelsea Smith at 603.536.8855, or email smithc@nhec.com.

Tom Belair is on the Energy Solutions team at NH Electric Cooperative, a not-for-profit, member-owned electric utility serving 85,000 members in NH. Please visit NHEC.com for more information.

*Vendors who manufacture or install qualifying chargers are ChargePoint, EV Go, Blink, ReVision Energy (Maine), Voltrek , Greenlots, EnelX and EV Launchpad.