Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Implementation Costs topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Agencies warn standing up statewide charger-uptime oversight will cost millions and take time
Summary
The Public Service Commission and Weights and Measures provided fiscal estimates for proactive charger monitoring: PSC estimated $1.5M–$2M startup and $500k–$700k annually; Weights and Measures estimated roughly $500k initial for staff, standards and vehicles. Agencies warned some offices could not fully implement until later due to IT and staffing constraints.
State agency representatives told an EV charging work group that creating a statewide, proactive uptime-monitoring program would require notable upfront expenditures and staff capacity.
The Public Service Commission estimated a startup range of about $1.5 million to $2 million and ongoing annual costs of roughly $500,000–$700,000 if the agency were asked to perform annual field checks on the order of tens of thousands of ports. The PSC said that figure assumed checking approximately 27,000 chargers annually, requiring several technicians, vehicles and test standards.
Weights and Measures described a smaller but still material fiscal note if asked to expand its role: roughly a half-million dollars initially to buy standards equipment, two vans and to add two inspector positions to begin inspections under existing handbook authority (NIST Handbook 44). Allison of Weights and Measures stressed that their statutory role today is meter accuracy and device conformance, not uptime monitoring, so any new responsibilities would require additional authority and resources.
The Comptroller's office said full implementation by its IT shop would be delayed because of ongoing IT transitions and that it could not support full implementation immediately; one official said a full roll-out by the Comptroller’s office might not be possible until 2028.
Agency officials urged the work group to weigh both the consumer benefits of proactive enforcement and the fiscal/operational realities. "If we had to track 27,000 EV charges in the state once a year, that was 8 to 10 technicians," a PSC speaker said, summarizing the staffing assumptions behind the estimate.
Next steps: the work group asked agencies to provide more detailed budget and personnel estimates tied to specific enforcement scenarios so legislators and drafters can consider realistic appropriation requests before assigning final implementing authority.
