Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

These Two Electric Chargers Ran Out of Gas, So to Speak

—

by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Out of Order

I’m just back from a trip to Virginia Beach on a media tour of Dominion Energy’s two experimental offshore wind turbines. I’ll have more to say about them shortly. As for the subject of this post… Driving home, I stopped at the Interstate 64 rest stop between West Point and Richmond. Very conveniently for drivers of electric vehicles, the rest stop sports two EV fast-charging stations. Recharge your car while you’re taking a leak!

Dominion Energy installed the fast-charging station in partnership with the Virginia Department of Transportation in 2009, according to this article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It was to be the first of many.

Correction: The original version of this post made the inaccurate assumption that these charging stations were part of a recent Northam administration initiative with Los Angeles-base EVgo funded from a Volkswagen settlement. Bacon’s Rebellion regrets the error. But Bacon’s Rebellion still wonders who paid for the charging stations — Dominion rate payers or shareholders — and how long they have been out of order.

— JAB

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

31 responses to “These Two Electric Chargers Ran Out of Gas, So to Speak”

  1. Steve Gillispie Avatar
    Steve Gillispie

    Hold their feet to the wire, Jim. Did you make any inquiries? Was there a phone number or any way to find out when they will be in service? Be interesting to find out how many are installed and how many are currently out of order.

  2. James Kiser Avatar
    James Kiser

    Figures just like the state contract with metro to extend to Dulles with kaine giving the state toll rd away and Warner’s computer contract for the state system that has never worked.

    1. Brian Leeper Avatar
      Brian Leeper

      They sure to seem to be good at pissing money away on things that never work.

  3. Old Matt Avatar
    Old Matt

    these are level 1 chargers at a public rest stop on I64 and are owned by Dominion Energy. They were installed like 15 years ago and are NOT part of the EVgo/VW Settlement program. They are out of order because the federal government prohibits the selling of anything except snacks at rest areas so they cannot be activated or replaced. Some basic research would have revealed these facts.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Sorry to hear the facts. I was going to accuse some coal tycoons of vandalism.

    2. Brian Leeper Avatar
      Brian Leeper

      So why haven’t they been removed? (Probably the same reason there’s still a payphone at Leesylvania State Park, which doesn’t work and probably has been out of order for years–nobody gives a crap).

      A little research shows that the law prohibiting the sales at rest stops dates back to 1956.

      So it still makes the Commonwealth look like boneheads, albeit for a different reason.

      And if they are really level 1 chargers, the 12A @ 120V they are limited to is not really that useful, even if they were allowed by law. (For those who don’t know what that means, it gives you about 3-4 miles of range per hour of charging—obviously not quite useful at a rest stop….).

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        There is probably a true, funny, and cringeworthy reason they’re still there… it’s probably illegal to remove them. Catch 22 — not just a great novel, but a goal.

        Virginia — 400 years of tradition unhampered by progress.

        1956? No doubt it was aimed at Girl Scouts selling cookies at the Welcome Center and undercutting some GA member’s vending machines.

        I could understand wanting to keep out the panhandling, but that predates Hare Krishnas in the airports. Hell, forgot. This is Virginia. That predates airports in Virginia.

        1. Matt Adams Avatar
          Matt Adams

          The last was passed to “protect” restaurants and gas stations directly off the highway. As indicated by my above comment, states by-pass it an I’m sure you’ve experienced it driving to New England on 95.

    3. Matt Adams Avatar
      Matt Adams

      “They are out of order because the federal government prohibits the selling of anything except snacks at rest areas so they cannot be activated or replaced.”

      Not completely true.

      The federal law to protect restaurants and gas stations located just off highway exits only pertains to any such location built after 1960.

      See Delaware, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Delaware especially makes a killing off their rest stops and contract with HMSHost and didn’t pay a dime for them.

    4. DRocco Avatar
      DRocco

      These outlets never charged money for the electricity. So the prohibition on commercial activity at rest areas does not apply.

  4. Publius Avatar
    Publius

    Hmmm… EVGo… Who is behind it?
    https://www.evgo.com/about/leadership/
    Funny, two of the execs came out of Obama admin… And the other 2…some kind of PE firms…wanna bet they specialized in green graft?
    Then look at the sustainability page –
    https://www.evgo.com/about/sustainability/
    They work with 2 “non-profits” – Veloz and Grid Alternatives. How many of the leaders there work with other non-profits, or a utility (essentially part of the government) or are businesses paying the required virtue signal rent?

    How did Terry McAwful get rich? Wasn’t it some green car thing combined with a H1B visa scam?

    The entire non-profit world is a giant money laundering enterprise for Dem grift and graft, and they use the schools – a revolving door from a gov job to a university to a nonprofit, to a captured business…lather rinse repeat. Also have bastardized the grant process at universities. Something needs to be done akin to the public company governance models with no interlocks and maybe even audits for certain sizes. Also scam tax deduction racket – give to the 501(c)(3) and it doles the money out to 501(c)(4) in support of something not otherwise deductible – or just pay high salaries. Pubbies do the grift graft game too…just not as openly and brazenly corrupt and live in fear a DNC “journalist” will out them.

    Akin to the union/politician corruption cycle, only much bigger.

    1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      If you are going to make broad statements such as “The entire non-profit world is a giant money laundering enterprise for Dem grift and graft…,” [emphasis added] you should at least provide some evidence to support such an outlandish statement. Of course, you can’t provide such evidence because the statement is outright wrong. Here are some non-profit organizations that are definitely not set up to support “Dem grift and graft”: Americans for Tax Reform, National Association of Manufacturers, The Federalist Society and the list could go on and on.

      1. Publius Avatar
        Publius

        I agree. I am talking about the mega foundations primarily. Many small ones are fine. But some of them are bad. My son had a failed marriage to a girl who worked with Pew. The head of the day to day instructed the employees to lie in a survey so the Board wouldn’t know how stacked the deck was. O’Sullivan’s Law? Any organization not explicitly right wing will over time become left wing… Ford… Rockefeller…
        And the interplay of govt initiatives and former politician’s companies’ getting the $. Serious inspection and reform is necessary.
        Is that better?
        But my general point still holds. It’s corrupt. How do all those politicians end up so rich…on $175k a year? And get a pension for their “hard work.”

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Bathering. Not talking.

          1. Publius Avatar
            Publius

            Thanks for the usual deep analysis NN. See, Dick offers a substantive comment. I replied and added nuance. There is probably some area in this general area where we would agree.
            You add $0 of value to discourse, but you do you…

          2. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Nuance? What? Is this smellivision? Adding stink to your bs is not nuance.

        2. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
          Dick Hall-Sizemore

          “Any organization not explicitly right wing will over time become left wing.” I guess that means they have seen the light.

          Also, just because you had a bad experience with some individuals with Pew does not mean the organization itself, or any left-leaning organization for that matter, is corrupt.

          It is not uncommon for politicians to get rich after leaving office–be they Democrats or Republicans. Lobbying groups snap them up.

          1. Publius Avatar
            Publius

            And you are good with it? It doesn’t trouble you? Eric Cantor is really worth a couple of million a year? And how do they get rich while in office? Al Gore lobbying for his green company? How come all these companies need government subsidies to operate and how come so many politicians? A vast money laundering operation…and back to tied with many non-profits…and many universities are corrupted in their research to get the grants. So the exceptions are proving the rule. You know there is vast corruption where there is so much money and so little oversight.

          2. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Monolithicism? Is that a word?

  5. Brian Leeper Avatar
    Brian Leeper

    Some methhead probably stole the copper wire connecting them to the breaker panel.

    On the other hand, this is Virginia, so it’s just as likely that the copper wire connecting them to the breaker panel was never installed.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Aluminum wire.

      1. Brian Leeper Avatar
        Brian Leeper

        They could have used either copper or aluminum. Since the cost effective, efficient choice is aluminum, you can be sure that copper was used instead.

  6. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Wildly OT — 4:34 AM and Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce uninterrupted by commercials. What a treat!

  7. emjak Avatar
    emjak

    It might been interesting to take a look at the history of how the gas station infrastructure for motor vehicles developed and grew in America to keep pace with the growth of motor vehicle ownership over the years. Such an historical perspective might suggest useful lessons that could be applied to developing recharging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Yes and no. Gas stations arrived with cars AND roads. Different this time. The roads are already there.

  8. Publius Avatar
    Publius

    How come the green companies generally fail, but generate great press, don’t do what was promised, the money disappears and the jobs don’t come? Here’s one in WA State, but seems to be the usual end… And wasn’t there something like that in Hopewell? Osage?
    https://www.chronline.com/stories/once-celebrated-onalaska-company-leaves-behind-100000-gallons-of-hazardous-waste,267756
    Where does the money go?

  9. Old Matt Avatar
    Old Matt

    The station was installed at no cost to the state in 2009.

    https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/va-installing-hybrid-charging-stations-at-some-remaining-rest-stops/2093492/

    1. Publius Avatar
      Publius

      Shazam! It’s magic!
      At no cost to the State says Tim Kaine’s office…
      Where does the Dominion VA Power money come from?
      They are still around aren’t they?
      Or was the purpose due to regulatory capture to do the required virtue signal to the “landlords?” “Nice place you got here. Shame if something happened to it…”

    2. Matt Adams Avatar
      Matt Adams

      So the Gov. Office worked with Dominion to install services that the Governor’s office knew (well at least should’ve been aware of a Federal Law from 1956) could never be operated?

      If Dominion Virginia Power was working with the Governor’s office and or VADOT they were most certainly doing so at costs to the state. Those employee’s weren’t giving their own free time and their salaries are paid by the taxpayer.

      Also a little caveat for you from another article.

      “The Virginia Department of Transportation is working with Dominion to identify other rest areas or other locations that will get the charging stations. Through a partnership with Dominion, the state is not paying for the installations, though it will pay the electricity bill for the additional power usage at the sites.”

      https://www.pilotonline.com/news/transportation/article_6670afe1-53c3-56f7-9da8-2fe3351fe6a4.html

      It’s a good thing they never turned on, the claim that the state wasn’t paying for them could no longer be true.

  10. DRocco Avatar
    DRocco

    Even if these worked, they’d be completely worthless. They’re Level 1 chargers — 110 volts at probably 15 amps (maybe 20), so plugging in would give you about 4 miles of range per hour. And you’d have to bring your own charging cable.

    No idea why anyone thought these would ever be of any use to drivers. And they probably cost almost nothing to install — maybe just a PR move for Dominion.

    IMHO I-64 Between Richmond and Hampton Roads is severely lacking in EV charging infrastructure. Between Richmond and Williamsburg there’s a total of one (non-Tesla) DC fast charger, and it’s not very fast. So this would be a great area for EVgo or someone else to build chargers. Federal law prohibits building most things that cost money at on-highway rest areas, so this specific spot wouldn’t fly. But any number of other possibilities would work.

  11. James A. Bacon Avatar
    James A. Bacon

    Update from Samantha Q. Moore, Dominion spokesperson: “The chargers were installed by Dominion Energy in partnership with VDOT about 10 years ago. Dominion Energy paid for the equipment and installation. We are currently working with VDOT to replace them with updated models. “

Leave a Reply

Read More