Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Community Needs Assessment

Dependence on fossil fuels, climate change, and degraded air quality are forcing the auto industry and consumers to seek alternative solutions to the current transportation system. Significant technical breakthroughs are allowing automakers to develop electric vehicles (EVs) that transcend some of the key barriers that limited them historically. Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) expects some type of plug in vehicle, whether it be a hybrid or all electric will be available in the marketplace within the next 18-24 months, and the demand for EVs will grow rapidly once affordable highway speed vehicles become available. ODOT identifies the lack of a…

Dependence on fossil fuels, climate change, and degraded air quality are forcing the auto industry and consumers to seek alternative solutions to the current transportation system.  Significant technical breakthroughs are allowing automakers to develop electric vehicles (EVs) that transcend some of the key barriers that limited them historically.  Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) expects some type of plug in vehicle, whether it be a hybrid or all electric will be available in the marketplace within the next 18-24 months, and the demand for EVs will grow rapidly once affordable highway speed vehicles become available.
 
ODOT identifies the lack of a reliable network of charging facilities that increases the range of these vehicles as the biggest barrier to widespread adoption of EV technology. The demand of such facility is expected to grow even bigger as ODOT forecasts that EVs may account up to 20% of the new vehicles sold on Oregon within a decade.

Community Planning Workshop (CPW) at the University of Oregon is an experiential learning program within the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management (PPPM). CPW provides students the opportunity to address planning and public policy problems for clients throughout Oregon. Students in the Master of Community and Regional Planning Program and related disciplines work in teams under the direction of faculty and Graduate Teaching Fellows to develop proposals, conduct research, analyze and evaluate alternatives, and make recommendations for possible solutions to planning problems in Oregon communities.

For this project, CPW will develop a working coalition with Design Bridge, and local community partners to conduct needs and feasibility assessment and provide design guidance for EV charging stations so that the community will be prepared for the introduction of EV technology.  Design Bridge is a student organization linking the UO with the surrounding community by offering weekend design charrettes, full design development services and design-build services to clients. The focus is to bring the resources and energy of design students to communities and organizations. Design Bridget focuses on projects that have a mutual benefit to us as design students and to the community and seeks projects and clients that share our commitment to sustainable design and green building practices. Specifically, the project will:

(1) Conduct a literature review on EV technology and development strategies, and provide summary of key literature and EV’s local implication.
(2) Conduct a local demand assessment.
(3) Identify power load implications for utilities based on the local demand assessment and different charging station scenarios.
(4) Identify siting implications, including required infrastructure, as well as siting opportunities and challenges, such as local developmental codes and safety issues.
(5) Map potential locations for charging infrastructure in metro area.
(6) Analyze pricing implications, potential pricing structures, and regulatory issues for fleet, residential and convenience charging sites.
(7) Investigate potential sites for electric vehicles charging stations and design at the point-of-delivery.

This project directly supports OTREC’s objectives for educational proposals. CPW’s transportation focused service learning class in collaboration with Design Bridge will (1) increase the transportation element of an existing class, and (2) provide opportunities for students to integrate transportation into architectural design, thereby promoting learning across disciplines in the transportation field. 

We understand that Portland State University is submitting a separate grant proposal that addresses similar issues in the Portland Metropolitan Region. We believe there is merit in both proposals; where PSU’s proposal addresses vehicle electrification issues for a larger metropolitan region, our proposal focuses on EV delivery methodologies within a smaller market and at a smaller scale. If both proposals are funded, we would coordinate efforts with the PSU team and schedule workshops in Portland to share results with the PSU team and other interested parties. This project has statewide significance through applied research that will be relevant to any community that wants to implement EV charging infrastructure.