I am now an Electrical Vehicle owner, and once you become an EV owner, the way you look at energy changes. You start looking for EV chargers and quickly learn which ones are the fastest; which ones cost too much; and which ones use a significant amount of renewable energy, which is almost none of the ones in Bellingham and Whatcom County. 

At first, I was happy to see that the City of Bellingham had installed EV chargers at 26 sites. Or at least I was until I found out that, like with all infrastructure projects, the COB half-assed virtually all of the installs and opted to refer annoyed citizens to either, you guessed it, overpriced private solutions or their two fast chargers. This is similar to their approach to broadband. And, of course, the chargers are operated by ChargePoint, a company headquartered in California. This means that a large portion of the money the COB could be making from the chargers is instead going to ChargePoint.

For this article, I focussed on the charger at Bloedel Donovan Park because I did a deep dive on that particular installation, but these numbers are true for most of COB’s chargers. I do NOT include chargers that are supplemented by solar panels, except in the cost comparison. Solar supplements are generally a very cool idea, but overall, most of COB’s chargers are simply for show when compared to the actual demands of a modern EV owner as well as the needs of our environment and community. 

Below are a few numbers that are important: 

The standard home in Bellingham usually has 200 Amp electrical service, although some homes go up to 300 Amps. PSE offers rebates to people who want to install a charger; their standard charger is a model that uses 11.6 kilowatt (1kW = 1,000 watts).

Bloedel Donovan Park and similar COB sites have 800 AMP electrical service, but only installed 6.4 kW “per-channel” chargers. There are two channels per charger for a total of 12.8 kW to each charger. 

It is worth noting that each EV can only make use of 6.4 kW even if only one vehicle is charging. In a situation where only one vehicle is charging, which is often the case at Bloedel, they could theoretically make use of up to 12.8 kW. But neither the COB or ChargePoint had the common sense to install a charger that could auto-adjust to the load on the charger. It wouldn’t have cost much more, they just didn’t do it. This is the situation for the vast majority of COB chargers.

The Test Vehicle:

The test car I used was a 2021 VW ID.4. It is a reasonably priced and popular EV in Bellingham. Is it the best? So far, I’m not 100% impressed with it. It has odd door handle issues; but hey, you didn’t want to lock your overpriced car anyway right? VW also likes to pretend that all of their parts, even brake fluid, come with a blessing from the fatherland that allows them to overcharge you by about twice as much for the same stuff you can get from just about any name brand. Their service shop also charges brain surgery equivalent rates for any service. Apple users know what I’m talking about here on the IT side of things.

However, the vehicle can get an impressive 260 miles when charged to 100%; but the manufacturer recommends that you don’t charge it beyond 80% most of the time for the health of the battery. It does have a nice interior and sound system. Like most EVs, the Chinese have a virtual monopoly on producing most of the parts for them so this VW is about as German as a Zongshen. 

Charger Size Matters:

Overall, EVs are superior in just about every way to their fossil-fuel counterparts. However, they have one major disadvantage: charging time (aka refueling time). 

A full charge takes 9 to 11 hours using a 6.4 kW charger (like most COB chargers) 

It takes 7.15 to 9 hours on a 9.6 kW charger (available at the mall) 

7.5 to 8.5 hours on an 11.6 kW charger (like the one at my home)
 
28 to 30 minutes on a 125 kW DC fast charger (like at Fred Meyer or some of the DC fast chargers at Civic Field) 

As you can see, it makes a huge difference. It is the difference between an EV being a practical solution or not.

A Minimum Standard:

While the requirements for the 125 kW fast chargers are substantial, setting a minimum standard of 11.6 kW per channel is not hard to do. The virtually worthless 6.4 kW chargers that are standard for most of the chargers in most COB locations can already be updated to better than this standard without too much trouble. In fact, including this minimum standard in a Dig Once Policy would be a good idea.

The Good News:

With 800 Amp, or better, service already available at places like Bloedel Donovan park, the COB has plenty of excess capacity to upgrade their existing chargers to at least the rate that most homeowners have done under the PSE rebate program using converted old welder or dryer taps. Remember, most homes have only 200 Amp service compared to the luxurious 800 Amp or better service at the parks. 

In most cases, a skilled electrician could upgrade the charging capacity of these chargers without needing excavation. If new cabling has to be run, it can be done through existing underground conduit, and even if they have to dig to run new cabling, the run at Bloedel is only about 150 feet to the building with only about 16 feet being asphalt. 

In fact, at Bloedel, an upgraded charger, like the 80Amp version of the ChargePoint CP6000, can provide nearly 20 kW per port and costs only about $13K. So, a modest upgrade that would make these chargers truly usable is easy to do and affordable. 

It seems obvious that the COB/ChargePoint should have just installed this model in the first place. Especially knowing that the COB spent about that much on the original, virtually worthless, CT4000 that is currently there. Had they just spent a few dollars more, there would be no need to write this article, but penny-wise and pound-foolish is how they tend to roll.

The Bad News:

As seems usual for whoever is the head of public works, in this case Joel Pfundt, he sidestepped most of my questions about the chargers, claiming nothing can be done unless the city gets another grant. He refused to admit that installing fewer chargers that were actually useful would have made more sense than a bunch of virtually worthless 6.4 kW chargers. Instead, he directed me to their two DC fast chargers at Civic Field, and private solutions. 

Public Works wouldn’t even answer my question about Bloedel’s total electrical capacity. I had to submit a public records request for PSE bills through the Parks Department who also confirmed that Bloedel has 800 Amp service. It showed the COB often pays $8,000 during non-peak usage months and up to $19,000 during peak usage months to PSE for electricity. Clearly, installing renewable resources would pay for themselves. It also means the COB often spends more every month in just purchasing electricity than it would cost to replace or upgrade a charger.

Charging Costs:

Charging at home: About $.015 per kWh at 11.6 kW

Solar Charging at Squalicum Park: $0.25 per kWh at 2.5 kW to 5.3 kW.

Note: The charger here provided only 4.7 kW at around 9am and dropped to 2.5 kW during my 25 minute charging period. So while solar is good for the environment, and gets us away from PSEs fossil fuel based power, the performance is abysmal. Also, solar doesn’t work at night. Running a supplemental electrical line from the structures a few hundred feet away to this charger would be easy. The run does NOT require asphalt to be removed and the city already has hundreds of thousands of dollars of excavation equipment on-site.

Conventional Charging at Bloedel: $.25 per kWh at 6.4 kW

Conventional Charging at Bellis Fair Mall: $0.35 per kWh

Note: Shell used to operate these chargers. Now a company called Jolt does. The software for the chargers is very unreliable and often starting and stopping charging sessions is hard. The problem most likely has to do with the charger’s wireless configuration and the terrible wireless services in Bellingham in general. Yes, the area is covered by 5G, but like most 5G it is awful. Bellis Fair has their own mall wi-fi but it is also awful. So they should run a fiber-optic cable to each charger, but we should remember that the mall gets to choose from the same awful providers the rest of us do. (See my broadband articles.) 

Fast Charging at Electrify America Fast Chargers At Fred Meyer: $0.64 per kWh at up to 350 kW

The Goal:

The goal should be for the city to charge as little as possible, especially at solar stations, and to provide truly usable service. They should also expand their charging network but only in a meaningful way that meets the standard stated above. While the COB EV charging spaces often sit vacant now, that is not because they are not needed. It is because the COB made them virtually worthless to protect private interests. For example, unless you’re living at Bloedel in your EV, charging there is simply not very useful. 

Remember, the COB has many non-voluntary taxes now including a 9.1% sales tax, parking fees, an obscenely high property tax and more. They can certainly afford to do a better job with chargers. You know, the job they could and should have done in the first place. Or rather, the job they would have done if anyone competent were in charge. Remember, the COB donates millions of your tax dollars to less-than-needy organizations all of the time. How about they put some of that money into real infrastructure instead?