MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University has added a total of 12 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations for the upcoming year. The university is in partnership with Greenspot for 12 charging stations—six in the upper-level parking garage at the Mountainlair (lot ST-2) and at the Mountaineer Station parking garage (lot ST-3).
On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” sustainability director in Auxiliary and Business Services, Traci Knabenshue, said Greenspot was selected after a public bidding process. In addition to the charging stations, Greenspot also maintains an app for users to pay for and track their charging status.
“They installed the charging stations, they operate and maintain those stations, and they have the proprietary app that users use when they are charging,” Knabenshue said.
At each location, four of the six spaces are labeled as “dual use,” meaning they can be used for EV charging or parking for any type of vehicle, and the other two spaces are exclusively for EV parking. GreenSpot charging stations are compatible with the North American Charging Standard for electric vehicles (NACS), but vehicles using the Combined Charging System (CCS) can also use the chargers with an adapter.
“We also have signage that marks which ones are EV only and which ones are dual use,” Knabenshue said. “The lines painted on the floor of the garage are also green for the EV spaces as opposed to the typical gold or yellow.”
The charging units look futuristic and will get the attention of motorists in the garage. Users will download the mobile app for Apple or Android, review charges, and plug the car in to begin the process. The session is 39 cents per kilowatt hour, and a typical charge will cost $12 to $25.
“They’ll use the GreenSpot app to look at the pricing and start their charging session,” Knsbenshue said. “They can also use that app to monitor how quickly their EV is charging up if they are somewhere else on campus.”
The charging stations were added after requests ramped up over the last five years from the campus community. Knabenshue said they’ll be able to track utilization, and more stations could be added under the current agreement with Greenspot.
“In the fall we’ll be able to see in a normal class day or during campus events what kind of usage we’re getting out of those stations,” Knabenshue said. “If we get high usage, we will consider adding more.”
This is a small plan of the overall goal of making significant environmental improvements on campus by 2035. After reducing the fleet size, the university will explore reducing the size of some vehicles in the fleet and explore the use of alternative fuels.
“Our first goal is to reduce the number of vehicles we have altogether as we are able,” Knabenshue said. “The second goal is to try to transition some of the fleet we do have to more sustainable options.”