Agenda & Notes: January 24, 2024 Infrastructure Workgroup Meeting

Agenda

  • Introductions and Welcome
  • Workgroup Participant Updates 
  • Summary of December 2023 ZEV Equity Task Force meeting 
  • Presentations 
    • California Energy Commission’s Zero-Emission Infrastructure Plan, Brendan Burns
    • California Energy Commission’s Community Benefits Framework, Taylor Marvin 
  • Next Steps 

Attendees
Natalie Reavey (CARB); Lisa Chiladakis (CARB); Marissa Williams (CARB); Isaac Sonnenfeldt (Cal-ITP); Anna Wong (CARB); Tom Ashley (Voltera); Rainer Lempert (Uber); Anthony Bento (CA New Car Dealers Association); Bridey Scully (CEC); Taylor Marvin (CEC); Tom Knox (Valley CAN); Brett Zeuner (Foundation for Community College); Adrienne Harris (CARB); Taylor Marvin (CEC); Brendan Burns (CEC); George Payba (LA Dept. of Water and Power); Kimberly McCoy (Central California Asthma Collaborative); Amanda Mattes (Cal/EPA); Zach Hill (Tesla); Andrea Nguyen (The Greenlining Institute); Nicole Landers (Changemaker)

Overview
The Infrastructure Workgroup has been thinking about how to scale up infrastructure in disadvantaged communities to bolster ZEV deployment.  This workgroup has focused on strategies that prioritize equitable access to charging options. The first meeting focused on a background of the ZEV Equity Task Force and summarized the two Infrastructure Projects that were presented during the first meeting of the ZEV Equity Task Force.

Future meetings will be convened in an ad hoc basis based on participant interests and project needs.

Presentations
Zero-emission infrastructure Plan (ZIP), Brendan Burns, CEC.  
Email ZEVEquity@arb.ca.gov for a copy of the presentation slides

The Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Plan discusses how to deploy an affordable and equitable infrastructure system. It gathers charger funding and deployment efforts from all state agencies and communicates state policy on charging and hydrogen fueling infrastructure.

  • The ZIP is released every 2 years, and is expected to be released during the 2nd half of 2024.

The first ZIP included equity considerations which will be folded into this 2nd version. Equity strategies include:

  • Making significant investments for MDHD ZEV infrastructure while recognizing the need to continue making meaningful investments to support infrastructure for passenger vehicles. A strong focus on MDHD acknowledges the need to swiftly transition the most polluting vehicles toward zero-emission technologies.
  • Ensuring ZEV infrastructure investments benefit those in low-income and disadvantaged communities. For example, under AB 126 (Reyes, 2023), CEC “shall expend at least 50 percent of the moneys appropriated to the Clean Transportation Program on programs and projects that directly benefit or serve residents of disadvantaged and low-income communities and low-income Californians.”
  • Using ongoing analysis to measure and track progress in serving low-income and disadvantaged communities, such as CEC’s reports under SB 1000, and an effort by the CEC to create a plan to define, measure, and track program community benefits beyond project location through a public outreach and engagement process.
  • Funding community-led projects to improve underserved communities’ access to clean mobility options, such as the Clean Mobility Options Voucher Pilot Program, implemented by CARB.
  • Funding charger deployments in harder to reach segments such as to support EVs for on-demand transportation services like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash; chargers serving multifamily housing residents; and chargers serving rural drivers.

Ways to engage:

Funding opportunities:

ZIP: public workshop second half of 2024

Discussion:

Question: Are there federal funds for fixing chargers? 

Below are a couple of links to federal funding opportunities:

Question:  Public funds going toward chargers as connectors/standards are changing and evolving.  How is CEC approaching this? 

CEC is watching this closely.  The direction the market goes has different implications on how CEC roles out funding.

Question: Will there will be real time usage data/geographical data as part of the ZIP?

The ZIP will reference data reporting. Under last year’s AB 126, “by January 1, 2025, the commission shall set standards for how stations subject to this section shall notify customers about the availability and accessibility of publicly available charging infrastructure.” There are also NEVI data requirements. CEC’s recommendation to all interested parties is to sign up to the Clean Transportation Program mailing list at https://www.energy.ca.gov/subscriptions for the latest on how these standards will be set and implemented.

Question:  Can you speak more about infrastructure for rideshare? 

This was discussed in the first ZIP and focused on “on-demand transportation services.” More information can be found in the December 2022 ZIP (pg. 45): “The state will deploy infrastructure to provide greater access by priority populations including low-income and disadvantaged communities. Infrastructure deployments are targeted at meeting the needs of low-income and disadvantaged communities who may have less access to or less ability to afford at-home charging. Strategies to address this gap include financial assistance to install at-home charging in single-family and multifamily housing, increased focus on overnight public charging near residences in densely populated areas, DC fast charging to provide more universal access, increased public charging at retail and work locations, and electrifying alternatives to car ownership such as on-demand transportation services. The CEC recently released grant funding opportunities for charging to support on-demand transportation services, multifamily housing residents, and rural drivers. The CEC is continually seeking ways, including through targeted funding solicitations, for the Clean Transportation Program to increase access for lower-income residents to cheaper and more convenient home charging. The CPUC’s Transportation Electrification programs require multifamily deployments to increase charging access for low- and middle-income customers.”

Clean Transportation Community Benefits Framework, Taylor Marvin (CEC)
Email ZEVEquity@arb.ca.gov for a copy of the presentation slides

CEC staff are in the process developing a new Community Benefits Framework to better understand the benefits of Clean Transportation Program (CTP) projects.

  • What: Public process for assessing, tracking, and improving community benefits of CTP investments
  • Why: Move beyond simple location-based view of CTP benefits
  • Who: Communities, Tribal and governmental entities, advocacy groups, industry, and CTP stakeholders and beneficiaries

This framework is an evolving staff level document that will continue to change as staff get more input.

Step 1: In a Clean Transportation Project solicitation CEC staff (potentially with public input) identifies the community the grant is intended to benefit. Communities can include but are not limited to:

  • Disadvantaged Community
  • Low-income Community
  • Low-income household
  • Tribal Community

Step 2: In the solicitation CEC staff identifies the benefits the grant is intended to provide to the communities identified in Step 1. Benefits can include:

  1. Access to ZEV infrastructure
  2. Economic benefits
  3. Educational benefits
  4. Environmental benefits
  5. Mobility benefits
  6. Public health benefits
  7. Resiliency and reliability benefits

Step 3:  CEC staff or applicant (depending on solicitation) will identify required metrics to show if benefits are being provided:

  • Infrastructure utilization data
  • Participant surveys
  • Job creation and wages
  • More metrics to be determined

Step 4: After implementing the project, the grantee must collect and record the community benefit metrics identified in Step 3 for the reporting period specified for the project and report to the CEC on a regular basis.

Post-grant assessment CEC will compare changes in metrics to determine whether the project addressed community need. CEC staff will regularly compare reported metrics for a project to determine whether the project is providing the community benefits as intended. 

CEC may develop list of metrics applicants can choose from or determine them themselves.

The framework will be applied differently depending on the program/project and will be applied on a per project/program basis.

Discussion:

Question: Can CEC speak to whether this is a vision for CEC running a qualification process for specific entities to collect this information?

The vision is that the framework would be included in all Clean Transportation program funding areas such manufacturing, workforce, and infrastructure related. It is currently a draft under development.

Question: What level of engagement will you have in step 1 and 2?  Are there thoughts about funding for community groups for this? 

This would be flexible.  The framework is less prescriptive but more as a guidance. However, it depends on the project.

Other Participant Updates: 

Rainer Lempert, Uber – Presented on charging demand model based on different scenarios. 

Near-trip and Near-home scenarios.  Participants who would like more information about this modeling please contact Rainer Lempert at rainer@uber.com.

Isaac Sonnenfeldt, Cal-ITP – Provided an update from Cal-ITP.  They are working with CARB to explore pricing transparency for disadvantaged communities and plan to look at how low-income drivers can figure out how much they will pay at chargers.  To continue the conversation, please contact Isaac Sonnenfeldt at Isaac.sonnenfeldt@rebelgroup.com

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