The Union Power Ministry on Saturday released revised guidelines for charging infrastructure for electric vehicles to enable faster adoption by ensuring safe, reliable and affordable infrastructure.
Among other things, the guidelines allow an individual or an entity to set up charging stations without the requirement of a licence provided they meet the technical, safetyand performance standards. They allow EV owners to charge their vehicles at their residence or offices using their existing electricity connections.
“The Union Ministry of Power has promulgated the revised consolidated Guidelines & Standards for Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EV) on January 14, 2022…These guidelines are exhaustive and include provisions for a) individual owners b) for public charging stations (PCS),” an official statement said.
Technology agnostic
It said the guidelines have been made technology agnostic by providing for not only the international charging standards available in the market but also the new Indian standards.
“To address the challenge of making a charging station financially viable in the period of growth of EV, a revenue-sharing model has been put in place for land used for the same,” it said, adding that government land will be provided to a government entity on a revenue-sharing basis for the stations at a fixed rate of ₹1/kWh (used for charging).
“The tariff for supply of electricity to public EV charging stations shall be a single part tariff and shall not exceed the “average cost of supply” till March 31, 2025. The same tariff shall be applicable for battery charging station (BCS). The tariff applicable for domestic consumption shall be applicable for domestic charging.”
It said the State governments will fix the ceiling of service charges.
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) will create and maintain an online database of the public charging stations in consultation with state nodal agencies (SNAs) and create a web-portal, software or a mobile application for the database of stations.
Action plan for nine major cities
The BEE, it said, is in the process of preparing action plan for the installation of PCS for nine major cities having million plus population (Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat and Pune). The initial target is 3,263 chargers under business as usual (BAU) scenario, 23,524 chargers under moderate scenario and 46,397 under aggressive scenario for installation of PCS in these cities by 2030.
Welcoming the announcement, Somesh Kumar, Partner and Power & Utilities Leader, EY, said, “The Ministry has tried to clarify certain points which have been gap areas for long. Allowing users to charge using regular electricity connections, prescribing ceiling tariffs, allowing open access, laying down revenue sharing models for land use, creation of database etc, all will facilitate faster and more efficient adoption of EVs. This also signals the strong intent of the government to promote EVs and realise their vision in the laid time frame”.
