haL2 - Two Years Later
By Jack Anderson, HaL2 Coordinator
Projects funded by private contributions rarely get scrutinized to see if the results attained meet the claims made during the appeal for funding. The purpose of this article is to check up on Plug-In North Central Washington's two-and-one-half-year-old effort to promote EV tourism throughout central Washington. The haL2 Project had an objective of placing 12 high amperage (70A or higher) EVSE units along major travel corridors in our area of interest. While planning started in early 2013, our first fundraising activity was in August that year. The "Electromotion EV Winery Tour" proved very successful and the first haL2 EVSE unit was installed in Winthrop during September 2013. The first image below we used during fundraising pitches; it shows our "intended" locations. Compare it with the second image showing our results. We are not "mission complete," but we are on track!
The City of Tonasket approved funds to install an 80A EVSE last week and the City of Davenport is actively seeking funds for the provisioning of the electrical power needed to install an 80A unit there. Plug-In NCW has the chargers on-hand and has worked closely with both cities as they develop their plans. Speaking of plans, you will notice we did not envision four 80A chargers in the popular tourist town of Chelan! We also did not conceive the Pybus Public Market in Wenatchee would become a host. The "golden" check marks show locations with at minimum one haL2 charging opportunity. Places with the "targets" represent our two currently active projects. Just a note; Seattle City Light is still operating one of our haL2 (80A) EVSEs at their Newhalem site.
My conclusion is that Plug-In North Central Washington did pretty much what they claimed they would do. How do you see it?