By Rohit Vaid
New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) The national capital and its surrounding urban centres will soon get 300 more electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the next five to six months.
The project to install charging stations is being undertaken by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power.
At present, the state-run firm in association with New Delhi Municipal Council has already installed 55 DC-0001 15 kW public charging stations in Delhi.
"We are planning to install up to 300 in Delhi-NCR in next five to six months. We have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) to install around 100 public charging stations in the city," EESL Managing Director Saurabh Kumar told IANS.
Apart from the public charging stations, the firm has also installed a total of 305 captive chargers in Delhi alone, out of which 102 are DC-001 fast charger and 203 are AC-001 chargers.
"EESL has already installed 55 public charging stations in the most prominent markets across Delhi. Looking at the current demand and EVs on road, these charging stations are enough," Kumar said.
"However, we understand that the future of mobility is electric and demand for EVs is also increasing substantially. So, we are expanding the charging infrastructure in Delhi-NCR and other cities in India. We are in discussion with other cities across the country for the deployment of e-chargers and will continue to add more charging points as per the requirement."
Currently, the Delhi-based charging stations are located in NDMC areas such as Connaught Place and Khan Market among others.
According to Kumar, one of the major capital requirements to set up charging infrastructure is the availability of 'land'.
As of now, most municipal bodies which offer required parking slots for public chargers to EESL do not charge any rent. The state-run firm then set up the charging station in that area and operates it for 10 years.
In return, EESL pays a certain proportion as land rental to the municipal corporation for every kilowatt hour (kW/h) the company utilises.
Another factor for setting up charging infra is capital expenditure as each DC-001 - 15KW charger cost approximately Rs 275,000 per system, wherein the CCS-CHAdeMO-combined chargers is for about Rs 14,70,000 per charger.
On the price front, the company will depend heavily on its strategy of bulk purchases of chargers which is expected to bring down the cost, substantially.
"We were pleasantly surprised, when we started the bid for the new charger. It reduces our investment substantially. This was a bid for 200 combined chargers. If we are able to aggregate more, we will do a larger agreement and expect that this price to further come down," Kumar said.
Currently, many companies like MG Motor, Hyundai and others including standalone charging infrastructure developers are installing these facilities.
(Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in)
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