In March 2024, the Great Plains Institute, in partnership with the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, launched Charging Smart. Charging Smart is a free technical assistance program for local governments to increase electric vehicle (EV) adoption. The program, which is funded by the US Department of Energy, is available in several states and will expand nationwide later this year.
The program is an exciting opportunity for communities to become EV-ready and builds on GPI’s long history of supporting communities in their preparation for transportation electrification. To learn about that history, explore our story map, which showcases how we brought lessons from our work with 127 communities across six states and four Native nations to the program design.
This post dives into the structure of the program, including the designation levels, categories, and scoring criteria.
How Charging Smart benefits communities
Charging Smart provides communities with a plan to accelerate transportation electrification in their area, with actions best suited to their needs and capacity. The only thing required of participants is staff time to complete and document tasks.
By participating in the program, local governments receive guidance to increase transportation electrification through installing EV chargers, electrifying public transit, government fleets, and other modes of transportation, and organizing events that support residents in buying EVs. In turn, communities gain access to the multiple benefits of electrifying transportation, such as reducing air and noise pollution and improving the residents’ respiratory health.
Charging Smart designation levels recognize community progress
As part of the program, participating communities can achieve three designation levels: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. .
The Bronze designation focuses on regulation by requiring communities to create and post an EV charging infrastructure permitting process on their website and identify potential restrictions in zoning codes. Communities must also discuss possible collaborations with local utilities.
Silver designees must complete all the Bronze designation requirements, conduct a fleet analysis, and change zoning codes to increase the deployment of EV charging infrastructure.
Gold designees must complete all the Silver and Bronze designation requirements, purchase EVs for their fleet, install a public EV charger, adopt approval and review timelines to increase EV charging infrastructure deployment, and update the comprehensive plan.
For more details on the criteria required for these designations, see the Charging Smart program guide.
Charging Smart categories of best practices
Charging Smart has six categories: planning, regulation, utility engagement, education and incentives, government operations, and shared mobility. These categories were chosen as the pillars of the Charging Smart program as they all play an essential role in locally deploying EVs.
All categories have a list of best practices that are broken down into specific criteria. In total, there are 145 criteria spread across 31 best practices, and a community can select those that best meet the needs and desires of their residents. That said, the program framework identifies some particularly impactful criteria and requires a small number of them to be completed to earn each designation level.
Planning
The planning category supports adopting policies and procedures to create an environment suitable for transportation electrification. Local governments that are part of Charging Smart can earn points for including electric transportation goals in their climate action plans and comprehensive plans.
Regulation
The regulation category focuses on identifying zoning barriers to installing charging infrastructure and implementing new building and zoning codes that remove obstacles toward installing charging infrastructure.
Utility engagement
This category focuses on building a collaborative relationship with the local electric utility to create and promote utility EV programs. These programs include charging incentives, EV charging-specific rates, and charging with renewable energy. Another best practice within this category is connecting fleets and EV owners with the utility so they learn how not to overburden the electric grid.
Education and incentives
The education and incentives category guides local governments in creating events and outreach materials that help their community members learn about EVs, EV charging, and financial incentives available to residents and businesses. These incentives may include EV charger rebates, loans, and grant programs.
Government operations
Local governments can lead by example and earn points by installing public and workplace EV chargers and purchasing EVs for the municipal fleet. They are also encouraged to provide training to appropriate staff. Installing public EV chargers powered by renewable energy can also earn points for participating local governments.
Shared mobility
Shared mobility encompasses mass transit, school buses, rideshare, and carshare programs. This category focuses on making shared mobility more accessible to users while earning points. Criteria in this category include but are not limited to, electrifying transit and school buses, developing an EV carshare program, and establishing electric micro-mobility options, such as shared bikes and scooters.
Types of Charging Smart points
Communities are expected to complete Charging Smart criteria and earn both general and EVs for All points toward designation. Communities seeking designation are asked to complete Charging Smart criteria to earn both general and EVs for All points. The Charging Smart Program Guide provides suggestions for how communities can document all of this. A technical assistance provider, like GPI, will also be able to help communities in that process. Once all documentation has been submitted, it will be verified by an independent Charging Smart review team.
General points
The Charging Smart framework offers a predetermined number of general points for each action. The values range from 5 to 20 points, and they are awarded when a community documents completing the action.
EVs for All points
EVs for All are required points awarded to additional actions communities take toward making the benefits of transportation electrification accessible to everyone. Every action toward earning points is eligible to earn EVs for All points.
The number of points offered depends on the level of impact and ranges from 0 to 20 points per action. For example, if a community completed the Charging Smart action to “create a community-wide EV vision,” they would automatically earn general points. They could also earn five EVs for All points by including a statement in that vision that acknowledges which members of their community face the most barriers to benefiting from transportation electrification. If the community goes further and makes a formal commitment to specific actions that would help remove those barriers, they will earn 15 EVs for All points.
Innovative action
All categories give communities the opportunity to earn points for meaningful actions or plans that are not included in the Charging Smart framework but advance the overall objectives of the program. The Charging Smart review team will determine how many points the community will be awarded for their innovative action. As a reminder, the action must be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. After the action is awarded points, the action can be shared with other program participants.
Learn more and get involved with Charging Smart
To learn more about Charging Smart, watch our Charging Smart 101 webinar and visit the Charging Smart website. If you are interested in participating in the program, fill out the form on the website.
If you have any questions about the program, please reach out to us at [email protected].
