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The Delhi Government of Mr.Arvind Kejriwal announced the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy in August 2020. The vision is to have EVs account for 25% of the new vehicle registrations by 2024.
This will be a significant step in reducing pollution levels in Delhi. Creating a vast charging infrastructure will be the most important part of this initiative. As per Mr.Satyendra Jain, the Power Minister, the government is looking at installing charging points at about 100 locations.
It is also proposing that in all new constructions coming up, 20% of parking space must be earmarked for EV chargers. And all parking areas with 100+ parking slots would need to earmark 5% of the total area for setting up charging infrastructure. This is planned to be implemented by December 2021.
In phase one, more than 1,100 electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations and battery swapping stations are planned to be installed at 100 locations. Each Charging station would have a capacity to charge 5 cars. They would have a capacity of 3.3KW. These stations would be installed on land that is owned by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). The average distance between each station would be around 3kmin 100 places. The Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) would be the project’s nodal agency and it has already invited bids from private agencies for this.
The tenders for the private companies that will set up the charging infrastructure are expected to be awarded by April 2021. These private companies will be building the stations on a PPP basis and will be charging service fees to recover their costs. The tenders will be awarded based on the lowest service fees, as per the vice-chairperson of DDC, Jasmine Shah.
The bidder would be responsible for supply, erection, testing, commissioning, operation, execution, and maintenance of the Electric Vehicle Charging Station at his own expense. 67 companies have already expressed their interest in the bidding held in March, as per sources.
The Delhi government will be providing the necessary electrical infrastructure and also connecting the bays to the grid. It would also be investing an additional Rs 10 crore for building the electrical network and connecting to the grid, with sufficient load.
The Delhi Government has already received bids for more than 200 land parcels in well-connected locations; and will start awarding for 100 locations urgently. Fast chargers and Slow Chargers for 2-4 wheelers will be provided for 2-4 wheelers at these locations.
DMRC, Delhi State Industrial& Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, BSES Yamuna Power Limited, DTC, and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited have already supplied a 23 sqm land pool for this project.
The distribution of these 100 parcels is 22 in the northwest, 19 in the south, 18 in the west, 15 in the southwest, 9 in the northeast, 9 in the east, 5 in the north. There are some exceptions for Central, Southeast, and Shahdara districts.
The sites have been chosen based on the DTL data collection drive which further assessed the locations based on land availability, commercial location vicinity, the density of population and vehicles, geography, etc. A methodology of concessionary sites too has been incorporated to factor sharing in the high cost of fixed costs between the landowner and the agency that will be maintaining the power station.
The charging bays would allow for access to all vehicles for using the charging facilities.
There would be primarily two types of loaders: slow and fast.
The low loaders would provide the minimum output of 3.3 kW and the fast chargers would include DC-001, Type 2 AC(22kW), and those delivering output of 15-22 kW per loading point.
The slow loaders would be used largely for 2 and 3 Wheelers. The chargers would be installed based on the vehicle density expected. There will be also a facility for battery swapping at some locations. The current battery would be swapped with a fully charged battery at the charging station. Each bay would display the battery configuration as also the charging cost, for the convenience of the customers. The Delhi Government had recommended a price of Rs.4.5/kwh for an EV for 2019-20.