Ministry of Power issues revised version of “Charging Infrastructure for Electric vehicles consolidated Guidelines & Standards”

March 24: Ministry of Power, Government of India has issued Revised version of “Charging Infrastructure for Electric vehicles consolidated Guidelines & Standards” on 14th January 2022. These Guidelines and Standards seek to proactively support creation of EV Charging Infrastructure, provide for affordable tariff chargeable from Public EV Charging station operators/owners and EV owners, enable EV owners to charge EVs at their residence/offices using their existing electricity connections, provide a revenue sharing model for land use to make operation of an EV Public charging station financially viable, prescribe timelines for providing connectivity for the Public Charging Station (PCS) and for rollout of EV Public Charging Infrastructure, outline the Infrastructure requirements for Public Charging Infrastructure.

The salient features as stipulated in the Guidelines and Standards are as under:

1. Tariff for supply of electricity for Public Charging Station (PCS) shall be a single part tariff and shall not exceed “Average Cost of Supply” till 31st March, 2025.
2. DISCOMs may leverage on funding from the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) under “Part A – Distribution Infrastructure” for the general upstream network augmentation necessitated due to the upcoming charging infrastructure in various areas. The cost of such works carried out by the DISCOMs with the financial assistance from Government of India under Revamped Scheme shall not be charged from the consumers for Public Charging Stations for EVs.
3. Housing Societies, Malls, Office Complexes, Restaurants, Hotels, etc. are allowed to install PCS for charging of vehicles including charging of visitor’s vehicles permitted to come in its premises.

4. Charging stations meant for 100% in-house/captive utilization are free to choose charging specifications as per requirement.
5. DISCOMs have been directed to provide electricity connection to PCS in accordance with the timelines specified in the “Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules 2020”.
6. The connection for a PCS shall be provided within 7 days in metro cities, 15 days in other municipal areas and 30 days in rural areas. Appropriate Commission may specify a lesser time limit than the aforementioned limit.
7. Any PCS/chain of charging station may also obtain electricity from any generation company through open access. Open access shall be provided within 15 days for this purpose. Only cross subsidy charges (not more than 20% as per Tariff Policy Guidelines), transmission charges and wheeling charges shall be applicable.
8. Guidelines also include the details of requirements of Public Charging Infrastructure (PCI), PCI for long range EVs and/or heavy duty EVs, Location of PCS, Database of Public EV charging stations, Tariff for supply of electricity to EV PCS and service charge at PCS.
9. Due to high cost of rent for land and charges, provision of land at promotional rates for PCS has been provided in the Guidelines. Land available with Government/Public entities shall be provided to Government/Public entity on a revenue sharing basis at a fixed rate of Re.1/kWh (used for charging) to be paid to the land owning agency, initially for a period of 10 years.

As per the revised consolidated Guidelines and Standards issued by the Ministry of Power on 14.01.2022, the deployment of public EV Charging Infrastructure is proposed to be carried out in two phases. Under Phase l, all mega cities with a population more than 4 Million and all existing expressways and important highways connected with these mega cities are proposed to be taken up for installation of public EV charging infrastructure. Under Phase-Il of the programme, the State Capitals, Union Territory Headquarters, and important highways connected with these cities are proposed to be covered for installation of public charging infrastructure.

Ministry of Power through its revised Guidelines and Standards for Public EV Charging Infrastructure has made provisions to encourage private public, startups and private entities in setting up public charging stations such as:

1. Any individual/entity is free to setup public EV charging station.
2. A Revenue sharing model has been prescribed for adoption by public landowning agency for providing land to a private entity for installation of public charging stations on bidding basis with floor price of Re. 1 / kWh.
3. Timelines to provide Electrical connectivity to public EV charging stations by Distribution Licensee have been specified.
4. Public EV charging station(s) have been permitted to obtain electricity from any generation company through Open Access.
5. Promotional Tariff for supply of electricity to public EV charging stations and battery charging stations has been specified to be single part tariff not exceeding the Average Cost of Supply till 31st March 2025.

Under the aforementioned ecosystem created by the Government, as per the data available with Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), there are 1633 public EV charging stations, installed by various entities and are currently operational in India.

This information was given by R.K Singh, Union Minister for Power and MNRE in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.