OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) will be developing rules to regulate public charging stations for electric vehicles following passage of a bill in the 2021 legislative session and is inviting interested parties to participate.   The bill, 2SSB 5192, requires WSDA to develop rules regarding electric vehicle supply equipment, primarily publicly available charging stations, where drivers of electric vehicles pay to charge up their vehicle’s batteries.   The rules would affect both the Level 2 charging stations, which take about 8 hours to fully charge a vehicle, and the direct current, or DC fast chargers, that can fully charge a vehicle in 90 minutes or less. In most cases, drivers pay a fee for the charging service.   The rules that WSDA will develop include:

• Requiring that charging stations offer multiple payment options.
• Establishing requirements that producers make charging stations that can be used by a variety of vehicles, using non-proprietary software.
• Establishing reasonable registration fees for producers of charging stations, in addition to the registration fees already charged for installing a charging port, to cover WSDA administrative costs.

As a first step, WSDA will hold several meetings with those interested in electric vehicles and publicly available charging stations. These stakeholder meetings are open to representatives from electric vehicle manufacturers, companies that produce charging stations, businesses that host charging stations at their facilities, electric vehicle owners and any others interested in this issue.   Each meeting will address a different aspect of the rule development. Here is the meeting schedule: 

• Aug. 23, 9AM - 11AM: Providing an overview of the rule-making process and amendments.
• Sept. 8, 9AM - 11AM: Discussion of the requirements for multiple payment options for all publicly available level 2 and DC fast charger supply equipment.
• Sept. 22, 9AM - 11AM:  Discussion of nonproprietary interoperability standards for publicly available level 2 and DC fast charger supply equipment.
• Sept. 29, 9AM - 11AM: Establishing fees and reporting requirements.

All meetings will be held virtually over video and teleconference. Visit www.agr.wa.gov to participate in  a meeting or for more information about the rule-making process and schedule.