As Alaska Power and Telephone offers to lower energy bills for customers who buy electric cars, the state is looking to build more charging stations in Southeast Alaska.

Four years ago, German automaker Volkswagen admitted to secretly installing software in nearly half a million U.S. cars to cheat government exhaust emissions tests.

As part of a settlement, Volkswagen was required to invest $2 billion in zero emissions vehicle infrastructure, access, and awareness initiatives over the next 10 years.

Alaska received a little over 8 million dollars from that settlement. The state tasked the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) with figuring out a way to distribute those funds.

AEA has decided to designate $125,000 of the settlement for installing charging stations in Southeast Alaska. AEA’s Volkswagen Program Manager Betsy Mcgregor says there are a number of factors to keep in mind when choosing sites for charging stations.

“We’re really looking to the utilities to tell us where they have existing infrastructure, transformer size and such, to support fast chargers or level 2 chargers,” Mcgregor says. “Then you could see prioritizing major commuting corridors or putting it in areas where there are other services available like a mall or a bookstore or coffee shop. Something that would draw people to be there otherwise and give them an incentive to have their vehicle plugged in for so long.”

AEA requires a development plan before distributing funds for charging stations to interested groups in Southeast. The plan will involve utilities, transportation planners, local government, electric vehicle owners, and car dealerships.

Mcgregor says the plan will outline locations of existing infrastructure, proposed locations for new charging stations, and a schedule for installation.  

“It’s a collaborative process because somebody needs to be willing to host that site and fund at least the 25 or 40 percent match and then take care of that site for a period of time,” Mcgregor says. “The other thing is the fee structures. We don’t have set fee structures. I know in Juneau, for example, the entities that host these charging stations, they’re actually paying for the electricity.”

Southeast Conference, a regional economic development group, has been discussing plans for installing the charging stations. Executive Director Robert Venables says last week the organization reached out to local stakeholders to start brainstorming what a regional development plan might look like.

“AEA is going to make the ultimate decision, but they have indicated that they really want to see a regional plan with some overall goals and ask communities for their level of support. Take a look at who is going to take responsibility for the operation and maintenance of that and just kind of a framework to move forward in. We wanted to start that conversation and get out ahead of that,” Venables says. 

Before the end of April, AEA will post the requirements for a regional charging station development plan.