By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

A pitfall to the EV movement is where does one charge a vehicle while traveling?

Efficiency Maine Trust is targeting specific highway corridors to install Direct Current Fast Charging stations that can power an electric vehicle in 15 to 30 minutes.

Bridgton has been identified as a prime location. A local businessman suggested to Barry Woods, a senior director of eMobility at ReVision Energy, to reach out to town officials regarding developing more EV charging stations.

Currently, Bridgton has one public charging station, positioned adjacent to Pondicherry Park on Depot Street. ReVision installed the Level 2 station in 2015. It takes over two hours to charge an EV hybrid to reach 28 miles of range. There is no fee to use the charger, but Town Manager Robert Peabody noted that $126.92 in town money is sent to the Bridgton Community Center to offset the power cost.

“There is no tracking of how often the charging station is used,” Peabody said, “anecdotally, it’s well used.”

Wood pitched the idea to the Bridgton Select Board last month. ReVision has done 30 DC Fast Charging projects in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, Wood said, and would require at least four dedicated vehicle parking spots with 24/7 access along with room for transformers and switch gear. The site needs to be within a mile of the travel corridor — in this case, the public lot between the Bridgton Community Center and Magic Lantern is perfectly situation, a stone’s throw from Route 302.

Maine is presently in Phase 6 of the Efficiency Maine Trust DC Fast Charging program. Federal funding for charger station development comes from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Bill aimed to build a fast-charging network for non-Tesla manufactured EVs.

“They’re intended to meet the needs of what we’re seeing the auto manufacturers are coming up with,” Wood said. “Specifically, they’ve targeted seven different travel corridor segments throughout the state. This would be for what’s considered Segment 6, which runs from Bridgton to Fryeburg.”

Wood has talked with Fryeburg officials, but has been unable to identify “really good sites.”

ReVision’s approach can either be: 1. Identify a customer, such as Irving Oil, who wants to place chargers on their site and ultimately own the equipment, or 2. Work with a municipality with ReVision interested in owning and operating the charging station.

“There would not be any money requested of the town for us to do this. What we’d be looking for is some type of a longer-term arrangement to use the town resources, specifically the parking and whatever additional space might be needed for placement of the electrical infrastructure, like the transformer units and switch gear,” Wood said.

The chargers are about the size of a refrigerator, Wood noted.

Admittedly, Wood said the presentation to the Select Board was exploratory in nature, and more research regarding potential sites would be needed. He pointed out that if officials were interested, he would look to seek a letter of intent, which would be part of the application process for the state funding (80% state subsidy, 20% match from ReVision, deadline for submitting proposals under this program is Jan. 16). Charging station projects can be significant investments, based on the type of technology used which could push total costs in the $800,000 to million range. Because of the investment, ReVision seeks a minimum of a 10-year agreement. ReVision, based in South Portland, owns two DC fast charging projects in Maine — Belfast, placed at a Hannaford, and Ellsworth, placed at the Maine Coast Mall.

“We see Bridgton as a pretty critical link in what the state is trying to construct, and we feel like it’s worth drilling down further to see what the opportunity might look like if you are amendable to it,” Wood concluded. “If we can make arrangements with private entities, we will do that. But, we also think that towns, particularly in the downtown area if there’s municipal parking that’s adequate, can be a really good public service, as well.”

Peabody pointed out that the proposed agreement had not been reviewed by legal counsel since the manager wanted to wait to see how the Select Board felt about the project.

He also noted that a similar proposal was made a few years ago, and one concern was possibly digging up the parking lot to develop the charging site.

While the Select Board could see the benefits of motorists stopping in Bridgton (charger locations are shown on geo-locating type maps) to charge their vehicles and spending time shopping or eating out at local restaurants while their EV powers up, they were hesitant about giving up town property to a private entity, which will profit from a user fee.

Selectman Bob McHatton questioned why town government should supply a private business with land to construct the charging stations. “Why don’t you just go out and buy your own land?” he asked.

Wood responded, “We are looking at proximity to population centers and lots of other variables. The town has got a good location, and I can’t manufacture good locations even with a big paycheck necessarily.”

Wood opened the possibility of negotiating a per parking space lease could be on the table.

“Personally, I don’t believe in giving you parking spaces. You are a business and part of your cost of doing business should be getting your own land site and everything else involved in it,” McHatton said. “I don’t care if it’s costing you a hundred thousand or a million dollars, that’s the cost of your business.”

Wood answered, “I understand. Reasonable people can disagree with the value of this investment. This is a heavily state-subsidized program because there’s the desire to meet a public need. There is no guarantees from our standpoint that this is going to be tremendously profitable, but we’ve got to try to make our money back over time.”

McHatton added, “Originally when gasoline came in over the horse and carriage, I’m sure they had the same problems and same issues. I look at this the same way. You’re an independent business person. I don’t believe in subsidizing, to be honest. If we get to the point of actually getting an award, we could have a discussion about how to offset costs through a per space type arrangement. Like any news business, I have no problem with you coming to town.”

Wood noted that these chargers are a specific tool to help facilitate long-term, long-distance travel, “which brings us back to the tourism angle. I think that’s one of the big drivers for the state’s desire to invest.”

Peabody did point out that the town currently has some public-private partnerships — one example is the new 55-plus Harrison Ridge housing development, which was made possible when voters approved a TIF agreement.

Selectman Ken Murphy, who is a member of the Greater Bridgton Chamber of Commerce, offered to get the pulse of the business community regarding ReVision’s proposal. Officials felt such input could assist them as they weighed the benefits to the town vs the cost to the town.

Meanwhile, Peabody will send the proposed agreement to legal for review, and Wood will provide the board with more information.