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California Utilities Sign MOU To Collaborate On EV Charging Build-out

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A group of California public power and investor-owned utilities on Jan. 20 signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in support of a California Regional Charging Network.

The MOU encourages cooperation and leadership among the California utilities to build a regional network of electric vehicle charging stations in support of California’s goals to electrify its transportation sector.

The MOU was signed by the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, Northern California Power Agency, Pacific Gas & Electric, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, San Diego Gas & Electric Company, and Southern California Edison, with other utilities expected to soon join the group.

The MOU calls for the utilities to work together to identify key locations for electric vehicle charging infrastructure in support of regional travel across the state, identify those locations that minimize grid impacts and customer costs, and define charging infrastructure characteristics that lead to more user-friendly car and truck charging.

It specifically identifies the need to support and engage with local and diverse communities along the regional corridors and emphasizes equity and community inclusion, as part of the participating utilities core values.

The MOU also lays out ground rules for the proposed cooperative efforts, but does not call for the creation of any legally binding rights or obligations. The parties to the MOU may consider creating an informal steering committee to foster the principles of the MOU. Each party to the MOU will be responsible for their own costs, and all data shared by the parties will be treated as public record subject. The MOU has a term of three years, unless terminated earlier.

The MOU grew out of the parties’ commitment to California’s zero-emission mobility goals in California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-79-20 that calls for 100 percent of sales of new cars and drayage trucks to be zero-emission by 2035 and all on-road cars and trucks are to be zero-emissions by 2045.