At the February 7 Mineral County Board of Commissioners meeting, the commissioners unanimously voted to write a letter of interest to NV Energy’s Public Agency Charging Program to install electric vehicle charging stations at a community center within the county.
According to an NV Energy flyer, the Public Agency Charging program is a part of NV Energy’s Economic Recovery Transportation Electrification Plan (ERTEP), which is meant to reduce the financial barrier of building electric vehicle charging infrastructure for government agencies. By offsetting the cost, NV Energy is hoping that this program will help create the charging network necessary to promote and sustain electric vehicle (EV) awareness and adoption across Nevada.
NV Energy has begun collaborating with cities, counties, and tribes to recruit community centers to apply for this program based on certain priorities. The priority of the program is getting these EV charging stations set up in rural counties including Elko, Humboldt, Pershing, Lander, Nye, Churchill, Mineral, Esmeralda, Lyon, Storey, Douglas, and Carson City.
Installing EV charging stations through this program will be free to the community, but NV Energy states that:
“Beyond technical requirements like power capacity and parking availability, ideal sites will also have 24/7 access, dusk to dawn lighting, and nearby public amenities. A site may be conditionally approved up front, but no payment will be distributed until requirements are met.”
The Commissioners discussed possible EV charging sites in Hawthorne that are near community centers that are within a short walking distance between the library, hospital, and courthouse. Six Type: L2, 19.2kW charging ports are within the parameters to be installed at small community centers and one parking space with charging access must be designed with more space available to be ADA compliant.
Eligible site hosts for the Public Agency Charging program may apply through NV Energy’s online portal now (the program opened June 1, 2022). For more information about the program, visit www.nvenergy.com.
There are currently two electric vehicle charging stations in Mineral County. The ChargePoint station on 10th Street in Hawthorne is used a few times a month (it last charged a Toyota RAV4 Prime on February 9). An EV Connect charging station is available on US-95 in Schurz, but it is not clear what state it is in or how often it is used.
