In April 2021, Matthew Schantin a campaign coordinator with Environment New Jersey sat down with Christine Symington the program director at Sustainable Princeton to discuss their efforts in installing EV charging stations in Princeton and the unique challenges and successes that they encountered along the way—
To begin the discussion Ms. Symington described how she became involved in the installation process in the first place. Charging stations were something Christine had been curious about as they began to emerge in various towns. As a result she approached The Department of Public Works who had already been considering the possibility and told her to run with the idea and come back to the city with a proposal for installation. She first started by finding an ideal location, which she discovered on an EV app known as Plug Share that told her EV owners were already utilizing an open plug in the town’s public parking garage. Considering people had already been using the space, Christine thought it was the ideal charging location. After getting approval from the head of public works, Christine did research and gathered information to pitch a charging station to the city.
In 2017, EV charging stations were still relatively new, so Christine looked into what type of chargers would be needed, best practices for installing them and even interviewed other people to discover new resources and advice. After this, she was prepared to present to the city a plan for one or two level two charging stations close to the entrance of the public parking garage. She had gathered information like an installation cost estimate from the city’s electrician and was prepared to answer questions that might arise including how often the garage is at capacity and whether this would unfairly restrict the number of non-EV parking spots. With this information, she presented her proposal to the city. The city wanted to know how she planned to pay for the stations. At the time many funding streams had yet to exist; however, through a promotional event with BMW (no longer available), Sustainable Princeton was able to get the charging station paid for, and as soon as NJDEP announced their “It Pay$ to Plug In” program, they were able to apply and get grant funding for installation. At that point, it was full steam ahead and the charging stations were both installed and became operational for public use.
Christine mentioned that through the installation process there was a fair amount of coordination needed between herself, parking attendants, and parking enforcement. Therefore, some minimal training was required to help parking staff feel comfortable overseeing the stations and answering questions if they arose from EV owners. As for the parking enforcement, a discussion was had about what would occur if someone remained parked for too long or if spots were taken without actually charging. After a couple years of use, the garage hasn’t had any major or consistent issues.
Other advice Christine had for those considering installing an EV charging station is to make sure you have the proper wiring to ensure a single station can provide equal power to both cords. Further, electricians should make sure they have the proper training with the charging station manufacturers so they are prepared to install when the time comes. When placing a charging station in a parking garage, make sure cell reception is strong to ensure those using a mobile app to initiate and pay for plugging in will be able to access the app for the charger.
We asked Christine about other charging stations in Princeton and if she had a hand in installing them. Most of the other stations she said were installed by private businesses, however, she did remain a resource for EV charging stations and encouraged other private lots in Princeton to consider applying for grants and funding through the same programs she utilized.
