Objectives

To determine whether the New York Power Authority’s (NYPA) electric vehicle initiatives and programs placed the Charge NY and Charge NY 2.0 charging stations in locations where the intent of these programs could be achieved. We also determined whether NYPA’s EVolve NY program met its initial project goals by the end of 2019. The audit covered the period from January 2013 through May 2021.

About the Program

According to NYPA officials, they started projects related to electric vehicle (EV) charging as early as 2011. The Charge NY program, unveiled during the 2013 State of the State Address, sought to get more EVs on the road by raising awareness of the technology and making more EV charging stations—up to 3,000 public and workplace stations—available statewide within the following 5 years. Charge NY 2.0 built on the original program, aiming to encourage and support EV adoption by increasing the number of charging stations statewide to at least 10,000 EV public charging stations by the end of 2021.

In 2018, with the goal of making a larger impact on the State’s energy policy to produce better outcomes for the people of New York State, NYPA announced a new $250 million EV expansion initiative, EVolve NY. Through this key initiative, NYPA’s focus was on installing high-speed EV chargers in “key places along major highways and at the airports” and investing $250 million through 2025 on infrastructure and to raise awareness of the benefits of EVs.

Key Findings

We determined that NYPA:

• Did not place the Charge NY and Charge NY 2.0 charging stations in locations that supported the programs’ intentions. For example, NYPA placed public charging ports in only 32 of the 62 counties in the State. We also noted that counties with a high number of EVs have relatively few public charging ports. For example, Suffolk County has the highest number of registered EVs—7,916 or almost 17% of the total EVs registered in the State—but has only three public charging ports, or 1.1% of the 277 public charging ports placed throughout the State. This equates to only one public charging port for every 2,639 EVs.
• Did not review and analyze usage data for charger placement or use outreach efforts to encourage EV charger installation by its customers.
• Did not complete any of the planned projects for phase 1 of the EVolve NY program by its deadline of the end of 2019. For instance, NYPA did not install any of the planned 200 high-speed chargers by the deadline, and as of March 5, 2021 had installed only 29 EVolve chargers at seven locations. We determined that the installation of EV high-speed chargers is as much as 2 years behind schedule.

Key Recommendations

• Develop a formal process for evaluating new initiatives or programs that includes the expected results and performance measures that will be used to determine the accomplishments within a specified time frame.
• Develop a formal marketing strategy to increase awareness of the features of and educate motorists on the benefits of owning EVs.
• Incorporate into its current EV program an analysis of usage data and a discussion of the data with NYPA customers in an effort to promote the installation of additional EV units.
• Work with its customer base to roll out EV charging stations. Encourage/direct State agencies, public authorities, and local governments to install additional charging ports to demonstrate to motorists that facilities to charge EVs in a shorter period are available.