West Hartford planning for increase in electric vehicle ownership

WEST HARTFORD — With an eye toward the future, town leaders are preparing for residents to own thousands more electric vehicles within the next several years, creating a demand for more charging stations.

To accommodate that need, the town and its consultant have developed an electric vehicle infrastructure plan, plotting out how they might meet the needs of a growing base of electric vehicle owners.

“We thought it was important to have a plan to guide us throughout the next 10 or 15 years and maybe even beyond instead of just taking the approach of shooting them out there,” said John Phillips, the town’s director of public works, at Thursday’s Public Works, Facilities and Sustainability Committee meeting. “We’ve already taken the approach of just putting them out there. It’s now time to take that to the next level and this plan will do that for us.”

At last count, according to the plan, there were just under 1,000 electric and hybrid vehicles registered in West Hartford. But they see that growing, with predictive models showing that there could be between 16,700 and 35,200 registered electric vehicles by 2035. And that high number, the plan said, could mean the town would need 500 public chargers, according to industry recommendations.

But as Phillips told Town Council members, their plan doesn’t mandate anything. It just prepares them for that possible need. In West Hartford, 3 percent of all registered “light-duty” vehicles are zero-emission vehicles, which is double the statewide average.

“It models demand. It doesn’t mandate anything,” Phillips said. “We will follow the trajectory of demand both from a local registration, but also the state registration. We don’t want to be overly aggressive. We didn’t want it to be a mandated-looking plan. We didn’t think that was the right approach. The public’s going to decide how fast (electric vehicle) adoption happens based on what their personal needs are.”

But no matter what the future brings, Phillips said West Hartford already needs to add more. He said they currently have five active charging stations within their parking operations.

“The infrastructure we have isn’t enough,” Phillips said. “We have a lot of demand right now. We don’t have sufficient infrastructure.”

They’ve identified a few sites, including the Town Hall parking lot and the parking lot at the corner of LaSalle and Arapahoe roads as two potential sites for more chargers. Park Road could also get street parking chargers near Playhouse on Park. Phillips also keyed in on schools, like Charter Oak International Academy, and parks like Wolcott Park as potential sites.

“It’s not only a local destination, it’s also a regional destination,” Phillips said of West Hartford’s commercial districts. “You want to provide anybody who is coming in from out of town that ability to charge their vehicle … knowing that they can go to … Park Road and receive a small charge.”