Public Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles
 

To scale electric vehicle (EV) uptake, it is critical to scale up and ensure access to EV charging infrastructure. Charging infrastructure could be privately owned at homes or available publically at malls, offices or at public charging stations provided by public authorities, utilities, charging station operators, etc. This dossier looks particularly at public charging stations, calculates the jobs, market opportunity, and investment opportunity for public charging, and also provides a case study of battery swapping stations. Currently, Odisha’s EV policy is comprehensive, focusing on ease of entry, incentives for private and public charging stations, integration with urban planning, and ease of administrative processes. To accelerate growth of charging infrastructure, Odisha's EV policy must translate to effective actions by government departments and investors through creating awareness and collaboration between players to deliver charging infrastructure to users.

Opportunities for 2030

Jobs overview

● Assuming EV penetration in Odisha as per Niti Aayog's ambitious estimate of 80 per cent for 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers, and 50 per cent for 4-wheelers by 2030, Odisha would require 47,381 public chargers. Approximately 5000 FTE jobs would be generated in sales, business and IT, installation and operations of public chargers.

Market Opportunity

● While revenues depend on the location of the public charger, utilisation, etc., assuming a price of INR 5.5/kWh (Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission 2023), market opportunity would be approximately INR 300 crore (USD 35 million).

Investment opportunity

● The investment needed to set up charging stations with fast and slow chargers would be approximately INR 1,600 crore ( USD 200 million 2 ).

Why should Odisha invest in EV charging station infrastructure?

1. Accelerate EV transition - Reliable, accessible and affordable charging solutions are imperative to scale EV demand in Odisha. Scaling charging infrastructure will ensure the benefits of the EV transition like lower import dependence, improved air quality in cities, better livelihoods and lower transportation costs are realised at an accelerated pace. The supporting charging infrastructure is necessary to cater to current EVs (mainly 2Ws and 3Ws) in Odisha and achieve the state's EV policy target of 20 per cent EV penetration across segments by 2025.

Who could support in scaling EV charging infrastructure?

1. Role of departments:

a. Housing and Urban Development Department: Housing and Urban Development Department may direct urban local bodies and two smart cities (Bhubaneswar and Rourkela) to take local initiatives to accelerate private and public charging infrastructure and ensure integration with urban development plans. This includes integrating EV charging infrastructure with municipal parking and implementing building by-laws 3 to facilitate private charging at residential units.

b. Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC): Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission regulates electricity tariffs and ensures integration with renewable energy by public charging stations. OERC may explore the impact of EV’s on the grid, assess the need for upgrading infrastructure by DISCOMS.

c. Engineer-in-Chief (Electricity) is the nodal responsible for overall charging infrastructure planning and development. The four electricity distribution companies in Odisha can utilise the grants offered under the EV policy to incentivise private charging installation by their customers.

d. Department of Commerce and Transport: The department may partner with CSOs to create awareness of the importance of EVs and the incentives available.

2. Role of the private sector - The private sector is critical in designing, installing and maintaining EV charging stations. Odisha has an attractive EV policy coupled with a supportive industrial policy. For example - Tata Power plans to invest INR 6,000 crore in 5 years in Odisha towards EV charging, microgrids and more (Business Insider 2022). At the city level, Tata Power is working with Bhubaneswar Smart City Ltd (BSCL) in deploying charging stations at multilevel car parking (MCLP) areas and other essential city spots. Similarly, PSUs like Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) have committed investments worth INR 9,900 crore to accelerate charging infrastructure integrated with their existing petrol refuelling stations.

3. Role of local administration and civil society organisations (CSOs) - CSOs play a critical role in communicating state policy to consumers and beneficiaries. They can organise awareness campaigns and ensure residential buildings know about the incentives under the EV policy. Many charging stations are situated inside the boundaries of government buildings. Raising awareness to inform potential users about the charging stations around them is integral to tackling range anxiety.

Overcoming challenges to scale EV charging infrastructure deployment

1. Planning challenge: As per BEE, Odisha has 198 public charging stations (Bureau of Energy Efficiency). Charging infrastructure on national and state highways and fast public charging stations cater only to eclectic 4Ws. However, more than 90 per cent of EVs on Odisha's roads are 2Ws and 3Ws, which need slow AC charging in urban areas and not highways. As the charging requirements of different segments vary, there is a dual challenge of lack of accessible EV charging and limited utilisation of charging infrastructure.

The charging infrastructure planning must periodically evaluate EV volumes on the road so that the need for the EVs on the road is met while infrastructure for future EVs is built. Further, digitisation of charging-related payments will help monitor their utilisation, informing the planning of future infrastructure.

2. Interoperability in chargers: While the Ministry of Power has set up standards for charging stations, there is a dire need for interoperability so that chargers can be used across all EVs in the market. EV users are forced to seek charging stations that suit their vehicle’s specifications, which increases range anxiety in EV owners.

The government of Odisha, Industry players, and CSOs may advocate for interoperability across vehicles and ensure a standard charging type. Interoperability and standards would also play a big role in ensuring higher utilisation at charging stations.

3. Low utilisation rate: Currently, the utilisation rate of charging stations is low and varies based on multiple factors (The Hindu - Business Line 2023). For charging stations to become profitable, higher utilisation rates are needed for revenues to kick in.

Interoperability and flexibility for consumers to use common sockets rather than search for specific sockets would significantly make the network more efficient. Further establishing offtake agreements between CPOs and fleet operators can revenue inflows.

4. Information on available charging stations: Currently, CPOs only show charging stations owned by them on their apps. This can lead to the user going to far-off charging stations and increased range anxiety.

It is recommended to have a common app and a payment system listing all charging stations across companies. The Department of Energy, the commerce and transport department and OREDA may convene charge point operators and charging infrastructure industry players to develop an easy-to-use app for locating and using all stations. To enable this, interoperability and standardised charging infrastructure would be required. This will also boost user confidence and nudge more users to switch to electric vehicles thereby increasing demand and utilisation for charging stations.

Risk-proofing the scale-up of EV charging infrastructure

1. Risks related to battery swapping: This note covers only public charging, but other methods of charging also exist, such as battery swapping. While battery swapping offers multiple benefits such as reduced upfront costs, low maintenance cost, no cost of servicing of batteries and replacement, time saved from direct charging, etc., in the short run, battery swapping especially for commercial vehicles makes economic sense. However, over time, as technology improves and charge time reduces, users may not prefer battery swapping.

Mitigation: For the state, a balanced network of both swapping and direct charging strategically placed would be needed, to hedge any risks arising from either of the two options.

2. Higher demand from the grid: The high penetration of EVs would lead to additional demand from the grid.

Mitigation: Odisha may start gathering data on times and locations of demand to plan for EV charging stations in those areas and plan for time-of-day tariffs or other mechanisms to nudge charging during non-peak hours.

Annexure

Scoping of the EV charging infrastructure value chain​

This report covers only public charging stations. It looks at jobs in sales, business, software and IT and the installation of chargers. Additionally, employment generated in manned charging stations is also calculated.

Jobs and market estimation

Jobs estimation:

Methodology to Calculate Employment Potential

● Employment Coefficient

○ Leading players in the charging ecosystem were contacted. While information was received from two players, data from just one player was used to develop the FTE.
○ Full-time equivalent (FTE) covers activities such as sales, software and IT services, civil and construction, site survey, etc., and is calculated as FTE per charger.
○ It is assumed that half of the charging stations will be manned, based on stakeholder consultations.
○ It is also assumed that there would be five chargers per charging station based on MoP notification.
○ Employment is a sum of all activities including those working at manned EV charging stations, deployment for both fast and slow EV chargers and those working in sales, business and IT services. It is assumed that 16 per cent of public chargers are fast chargers (Soman et al. 2019).

Table 1: Employment coefficients developed (in Full Time Equivalent)

Source: Stakeholder consultations

Market sizing (in units):

The following steps were used to calculate the market potential for a number of chargers:

○ Step 1: Assuming Odisha meets NITI Aayog’s target of 80 per cent for 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers and 50 per cent for 4-wheelers by 2030, the vehicle stock is calculated for the year 2030.

○ Step 2: Calculating the number of vehicles that will need public charging - On average, only 20 per cent of two-wheelers, 50 per cent of 3-wheelers, 20 per cent of personal cars and 50 per cent of commercial cars require charging at a PCS (Singh et al. 2020).

○ Step 3: Calculating the number of chargers - Assuming 10 EVs per charger (Soman et al. 2020, Page 44).

Table 2: No. Of chargers required

Source: Vahan Portal; Soman et al. 2020.

Market opportunity (in value) estimation

Revenue per charging stations
○ The daily charging limit was calculated based on Niti Aayog’s Handbook of EV Charging Infrastructure Implementation
○ After calculating the daily charge requirement, the revenue (daily) was calculated as follows for each vehicle segment, assuming charges as per Odisha Tariff order:

Revenue= total stock * per cent of vehicles that need charging * daily charging requirement * tariffs

Table 3: Calculation of daily charging requirement

Source: Niti Aayog n.d

Investment opportunity estimation

Table 4: Cost of chargers as per stakeholder discussions.

Source: Stakeholder consultations

Table 5: Other costs included in calculating investment for one charging station

Source: Pulse Energy 2024

References

BEE. 2022. “Public Charging Stations.” Accessed January 16, 2024.
https://evyatra.beeindia.gov.in/public-charge-stations/.

Business Insider. 2022. “Tata Power to Invest ₹6000 Crore in 5 Years in Odisha towards EV Charging, Microgrids, and More.” December. Accessed January 16, 2024.
https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/tata-power-to-invest-rs-600...

EICElectricityOdisha. 2019. “Contact Us.” Accessed January 16, 2024.
https://eicelectricityodisha.nic.in/Contactus.aspx

Kazam. 2022. “EV Updates – EV Charging News from Odisha, Karnataka and Goa, Unique Electric Scooter Exchange Scheme and More,” Kazam, 2022. Accessed January 16, 2024.
https://kazam.energy/category/news/ev-updates---ev-charging-news-from-od...

“Request for Proposal (RFP) for Providing Electric Vehicle Fleet Services on ‘Own, Operate and Maintain Basis.’” Accessed January 15, 2024.
https://oredaodisha.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/RFPforEVfleetservice.pdf

Saxena, Aishwarya. 2023. “OREDA Floats Tender to Provide 300 EV Services.” EV Mechanica, May 3, 2023.
https://www.evmechanica.com/oreda-floats-tender-to-provide-300-ev-services/

The Odisha Gazette. 2020. ”ODISHA DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITIES (PLANNING AND BUILDING STANDARDS) RULES, 2020,”2020.
https://cms.bhubaneswarone.in/uploadDocuments/Notice/Notice20230802_1806...

Harikumar, Aravind, Anand RM, Himani Jain, and Sowmia Philip. 2022. Catalysing Kochi’s Electric 3-Wheeler Market Through Local Policy. New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water.

NITI Aayog, Ministry of Power, Department of Science and Technology, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, World Resource Institute. n.d. Handbook of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Implementation. New Delhi: NITI Aayog.

Nigam, Saumya. 2024. "Tata Power's Electric Vehicle Charging Network Surpasses 10 Crore Environmentally Friendly Kilometers." India TV News
https://www.indiatvnews.com/auto/tata-power-s-electric-vehicle-charging-...

Ministry of Power. 2022. 24 January. Accessed January 16, 2024.
https://powermin.gov.in/sites/default/files/webform/notices/Final_Consol...

Mobility, Sun. 2022. Youtube. 20 January. Accessed January 16, 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WoqhKPoCZk

Pulse Energy. 2024. "Cost of Electric Vehicle Charging Station in India." Pulse Energy, April 22.
https://pulseenergy.io/blog/electric-car-charger-price-in-india#:~:text=...(PCS)%20in%20India&text=%E2%82%B95%20lakh%20%E2%80%93%20%E2%82%B910,high%2Dcapacity%20connections%20and%20transformers

Shah, Nimish. 2019. “Cost Estimates and Revenue Model for PSC .” Plug in India. 1 July. Accessed January 16, 2024.
https://www.pluginindia.com/blogs/cost-estimates-and-revenue-model-for-a...

Singh, Vaibhav Pratap, Kanika Chawla, and Saloni Jain. 2020. Financing India’s Transition to Electric Vehicles . New Delhi: Council on Energy Environment and Water. n.d.“Interoperability of public charging stations important for EV proliferation.” The Hindu - BusinessLine. 2023.

Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission. 2023. Tariff Notification: Retail Supply Tariff Notification.
https://www.tpcentralodisha.com/pdf/customerzone/tariff_regulations/rst_...

n.d. VAHAN Dashboard . Accessed November 25, 2023.
https://vahan.parivahan.gov.in/vahan4dashboard/