The Union power ministry, on November 7, 2022, announced some amendments to extant guidelines related to electric vehicles charging infrastructure.
A government release said that these amendments are to the revised consolidated “Guidelines & Standards for Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles,” issued by the Union power ministry on January 14, 2022.
The official amended guidelines, as of January 14, 2022, may be viewed here. (external link)
Under the various requirements for public charging infrastructure (PCI), a new item has been added, which reads “The public charging stations shall have the feature of prepaid collection of service charges with the time of the day rates and discount for solar hours.”
Besides, as a new item for service charges at public charging stations (PCS), the revised guidelines state that a committee under Central Electricity Authority (CEA) will periodically recommend to the state government the ceiling limit of service charges to be levied. This Committee shall also recommend “time of the day rate” for service charges as well as the discount to be given for charging during solar hours.
The original guidelines have a provision stating that as electricity is being provided at concessional rates and also considering the fact subsidy is being provided by the Central/state governments in many cases for setting up PCS, the state government shall fix the ceiling of service charges to be charged by such PCS.
It follows that state governments will now fix ceiling of service charge as periodically recommended by the committee(s) under Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
Also read: TVS Motor Company Signs MoU With Tata Power For EV Charging Infrastructure
Third amendment
Guidelines for charging infrastructure for electric vehicles were originally issued by the Union power ministry on December 14, 2018. These guidelines were revised October 1, 2019, followed by amendments on June 8, 2020 and January 14, 2022. The amendments discussed in this story are therefore the third such.
Featured photograph (source: Siemens) is for representation only