Delhi to add 200 EV charging stations by 2021, plans battery swapping stations too

The Delhi government has envisioned to make the city synonymous with electric vehicles. The Charging Infrastructure Working Group of Delhi government, which held its first meeting on September 17, under the chairmanship of Jasmine Shah, vice-chairperson, Dialogue & Development Commission of Delhi (DDCD), has decided that all government agencies in Delhi including the three MCDs, NDMC, DDA, PWD, Transport department, DTC, DMRC and DSIIDC will carry out a comprehensive planning exercise in the next two weeks to identify concessional locations within their jurisdictions for the purpose of setting up public charging stations.

Through this exercise, the Delhi government is targeting a coordinated strategy to set up 200 public charging and battery swapping stations at prominent locations in the city. This was among the key decisions taken at the first meeting of the charging infrastructure working group of Delhi.

The Delhi EV Policy 2020 which was notified in last month by the Transport Department lays a special emphasis on accelerated rollout of public charging infrastructure as a key enabler in rapid adoption of EVs in Delhi. Given the multiplicity of agencies in Delhi, the task of devising and implementing a coordinated strategy for setting up charging infrastructure in Delhi has been entrusted to the Charging Infrastructure Working Group. Besides vice-chairperson (DDC), the meeting was attended by the Transport Commissioner, Secretary NDMC, Additional Commissioners of the three MCDs, CEOs of Discoms, and senior representatives of Power Department, DMRC, Delhi Transco and EESL.

Jasmine Shah said, “The Delhi government will soon be rolling out financial incentives promised under the EV policy. By creating a charging infrastructure working group, Delhi government has brought on board all the different agencies and DISCOMs of Delhi to initiate work on accelerated rollout of charging infrastructure in a collaborative manner. This is critical to realising CM Arvind Kejriwal’s vision of making Delhi the EV capital of India and among the top cities globally in terms of EV penetration.”

During the meeting, the three Discoms, EESL, DMRC, Delhi Transco, NDMC, East MCD and North MCD gave a detailed presentation of their proposals for rapidly augmenting the public charging infrastructure as well as private charging infrastructure in the city. It was agreed that given the emphasis of Delhi EV Policy on mass adoption of EVs in the two- and three-wheeler vehicle segments, the charging infrastructure should focus primarily on setting up a large number of slow-charging stations consisting of AC-001 charging points (3.3kW each) and a limited number of DC-001 fast chargers (15kW each), instead of setting up a few expensive fast-charging stations that cater primarily for premium four-wheelers. Additionally, developing a wide network of battery swapping stations was also identified as a key priority.

The group also identified that availability of land at concessional prices was a major constraint by Discoms and EESL and therefore it was decided that all the government agencies in Delhi including the three MCDs, NDMC, DDA, PWD, Transport dept, DTC, DMRC, DSIIDC, DUSIB, I&FC shall identify concessional locations within their jurisdictions within two weeks for setting up of public charging stations. It is expected that local bodies will take a lead in identifying locations at each of their parking lots for developing EV charging stations, which is also mandatory under Section 12 of the Delhi Parking Rules 2019. Once this mapping exercise is completed, Delhi Transco, which is the state Nodal Agency for setting up charging infrastructure, will implement a coordinated plan for setting up of 200 charging stations at the most prominent places in Delhi, with subsidy support from Delhi government.

In addition to public charging stations, establishing charging facilities in restricted public spaces such as malls, office complexes, group housing societies, hotels, education institutions, hospitals were also identified as a priority at the meeting. Given these premises have high capacity commercial connections, it was discussed that setting up of a large number of slow-charging points at these facilities would be inexpensive and a quick way of setting up thousands of additional charging points in the city and reducing range anxiety. The Dialogue & Development Commission and Delhi Transco are entrusted with the role of working out a special scheme on the lines of RESCO model under rooftop solar scheme to empanel energy operators at the city level who could then be engaged by the owners of these premises to invest, install and maintain charging points for public use within these facilities.