West Chester Takes a Closer Look at Electric Car Demand

With the use of plugin electric vehicles (PEVs) on the rise, officials from the West Chester parking committee, West Chester University, the Chester County Hospital and members of the West Chester Sustainability Advisory Committee met with Adam Beam of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)’s Energy and Climate office to discuss how best to plan for the needs of a potentially growing electric fleet.

"We are asking ourselves do we need to plan to add more [charging stations]? And we didn't know the answer to that question,” said Bradley Flamm, Director of the Office of Sustainability for West Chester University.

The University currently maintains two charging stations but both are in parking garages that require semester long passes.

Using current PennDot vehicle registration information the DVRPC can pinpoint the number of plugin electric vehicles (PEVs) currently registered in the borough. Then using software developed by the University of California, Davis, Beam was able to show attendees what demand could look like should the number of vehicles grow as expected.

The latest figures from PennDot showed roughly ten PEVs registered to the borough at the end of 2017 but if numbers in the Delaware Valley region grow to 200,000 PEVs, or five percent market penetration, the borough could be looking at over 150 electric vehicles on its roads. The projections are part of a pilot program run by the DVRPC. They are hoping to rollout the program to other communities in the area to help facilitate more discussions around creating infrastructure for PEVs.

West Chester Borough currently has four charging stations, one in the Chestnut Street garage, one at the Sharples Place, a new one at Borough Hall and one a the police station but to date the demand for the stations hasn’t been overwhelming. In the Chestnut Street location there are reportedly three vehicles that regularly take advantage of the of the option to charge up while parked.

Jan Markham a representative of Chester County Hospital thought a charging station could be nice to have but so far she said, they haven’t received any requests from staff. A sentiment echoed by most attendees.

"We are not seeing a big pressure,” said Flamm, “but we have had some questions from EV owners."

While projections as to when that level of penetration could be reached were not available from the DVRPC, the SAC will continue to encourage developers to look to the the future even if now is not the time to add more stations.

“We will continue to recommend builders include the infrastructure,” said SAC President Barbara Clarke. That way stations can be added more easily when that electric future is here.

Cara Corridoni is a member of the West Chester Sustainability Advisory Committee and editor of Hello, West Chester, a blog dedicated to sharing local news and happenings. You can read more about the meeting in "The Borough Electric".