Celebrating 100 Public Charging Stations From North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives

Where are your favorite charging stops in North Carolina? Which ones have been essential to your journeys? Chances are, North Carolina’s electric cooperatives are to thank for at least one of your answers. From the mountains to the sea — Waynesville to Avon — the electric co-ops have been critical to shaping the charging landscape throughout the state.

North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives serve as the Raleigh-based wholesale power provider to and trade association for the state’s network of 26 electric distribution cooperatives. The 26 not-for-profit co-ops collectively power 45% of the state’s land mass and serve 2.5 million members across 93 North Carolina counties. In service to their members and building a Brighter Future, the co-ops were proactive in bringing charging stations to the communities they serve starting in May 2016, with the first installation in coordination with Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation in Ocean Isle Beach. Since then, they’ve deployed 104 stations (27 DC fast charge and 77 Level 2) that provide 166 ports. Check out these statistics of the charging network to date:

• Typically, 1,000+ unique drivers per month
• Over 2 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity dispensed across the network overall, with 1.6 GWh in 2023
• An average DC fast charge session of about 42 minutes and an average Level 2 session of about 5.5 hours 
• Approximately 115,000 total charging sessions activated
• An estimated 1.5 million lbs. of greenhouse gas savings

The DC fast charging terrain for North Carolina sure looked different when the co-op charging network launched. Historic counts from the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) show 22 locations opened from 2011 to 2016, most of them at Nissan dealerships. Even more, stations were primarily in urban areas and could only be found off major travel corridors — valuable, but far from comprehensive. Now? More than 270 DC fast chargers stretch across the state, made up of CCS, CHAdeMo and North American Charging Standard (Tesla) plug types.

The real momentum began in September 2019, during National Drive Electric Week, when North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives announced a $1 million investment in a statewide charging network. Since that time, the co-ops have shored up a strategy that has served their members and the electric vehicle (EV)-driving public. Here are a few key reasons, from our perspective, for their success:

They learned by doing, not waiting

North Carolina’s 26 electric co-ops are member-owned and served and make all decisions strategically to ensure value to these members. With the growing interest in, and demonstrated value of, electric transportation, they knew access to a charging network for folks across the state, regardless of whether they lived in rural or urban areas, was essential. They started installing and operating a large EV supply equipment network proactively, before it became an urgent, “must-solve-now” dilemma. As a result, they understand many of the complexities that come with station buildout and maintenance — coordinating partnerships and agreements with site hosts, identifying technology options, finding the right installation contracts and pricing models, etc. All of it has benefited the public, both members and non-members, alike.

They recognized that listening to their members combined with community outreach and support is vital

The co-ops hosted ribbon-cuttings and EV outreach events throughout many of their service regions. The support — and trust — from members in their communities is evident across the co-op network.

They leveraged publicly available funds to enable deployment

With the groundwork laid through their initial investment, the co-ops were well positioned to scale the charging network with funding. They now knew the cost of projects and the steps needed to get them in the ground. The co-ops and their partners pursued multiple phases and application types, particularly funding from the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s Volkswagen Settlement Program. Many of the award announcements (here and here, for example) show the co-ops’ statewide commitments.

They’ve paired infrastructure investments with other offerings for their members

Many of the state’s co-ops offer ways for members to be in control of their energy usage, providing home charger rebates and demand response programs, as two examples. While public charging investments are important to an electric utility’s EV portfolio, they are most effectively balanced with other initiatives. Many co-ops offer time-of-use rate schedules as well, incentivizing EV-driving members with low-cost electricity during off-peak hours, and some are running an EV telematics pilot that allows vehicle charging to be managed through vehicle controls rather than with brand-specific charging equipment, which would otherwise be required for every participating member.

Owning and operating public charging stations isn’t always the goal for utilities. This may be especially true as vehicle adoption continues to rise and more infrastructure investments are made from other charge-point operators (like Tesla, EVgo, Electrify America, etc.) and from private site hosts and franchises (like Circle K). But the co-ops’ leadership and numbers speak for themselves, and their stations are building a Brighter Future for us all.