KCP&L’s charging station project anticipates growth of electric cars

In 10 years, Chuck Caisley believes he will be able to look out a window at KCP&L’s corporate office at 1200 Main St., in the heart of downtown Kansas City, and see electric cars go zooming by.

It is hard to imagine it now. The majority of Kansas Citians fill their cars with gasoline and go. Charging an electric car at home or at a charging station just isn’t part of people’s daily lives.

That may be about to start changing.

Unless you already drive an electric car, you probably haven’t noticed the 300 electric charging stations KCP&L put up last summer throughout its service area, which spans from Kansas City to as far east to Sedalia, Mo., and to as far west as Lawrence.

The $20-$25 million project should be completed sometime next summer when 1,100 charging stations are installed from urban to rural to suburban areas. Caisley, marketing and public affairs vice president at KCP&L, is confident these electric stations will be used and the demand for them will only increase in the coming years as more people purchase electric cars.

“It is coming,” he said.

To emphasize his point, Caisley pulled out his smartphone and used it as an example.

“Ten years ago nobody knew what these things were, getting pictures on your phone, videos. Who knew about that?” Caisley said. “I think it will be the exact same way with electric vehicles. Electric cars are cell phones on wheels.

“People tend to overestimate the amount of change to happen in two years and tend to dramatically underestimate the amount of change in 10 years.”

In February of 2014, KCP&L decided to jump ahead of the curve, taking on a project of this magnitude that no other major metropolitan area in the country had attempted.

For the first 2 years, starting this past summer, electric car users get free electricity from any of the KCP&L charging stations. To gain access to one of the charging stations, go to www.kcpl.com/CleanCharge and enroll.

Users will receive a small card similar to what you use at grocery stores. You swipe the card at the electric station and that unlocks the pump, which is most likely to be a Level 2 charger (220 volts). It will put 20 to 25 miles of range back on your battery for every hour you are plugged in.

“That is the vast majority of charging stations we are putting out,” Caisley said.

About 1,000 of the 1,100 charging stations that KCP&L is installing are Level 2, and each Level 2 station will have two ports.

“To get free charging, enroll in the Clean Charge Network or get information from a dealer or online,” Caisley said. “Ultimately, you can take a chip credit card and not be a member and swipe it.”

Caisley hopes the free part will entice people to explore the electric car option. In fact, Caisley said that while he does not own an electric car, his next car will be one.

“Americans, when you say something is free, that gets their attention,” he said. ‘I can get my tank filled for free. Let me look into this.’ It is to pique people’s interest early in exploring electric vehicles.”

All the electricity a driver consumes at the different host locations KCP&L is partnering with will be free to the driver. The host locations will pay KCP&L.

“It is to sort of prime the pump,” Caisley said. “It is an extra incentive. People in the Midwest don’t have enough awareness of electric vehicles and the benefits they have. If they did, electric cars would be flying off the shelf here.”

Why is KCPL doing this?

“We are an electric company,” Caisley said. “We serve people’s needs for electricity. We are putting this up so people can take advantage of it. Once there is enough critical mass of charging stations, and people start to adopt this that we have infrastructure in place to serve that need, it can grow, and we don’t go through some of the growing pains and frustrations that other areas have.”

The biggest fear for people when it comes to electric cars is range anxiety. The range for a Nissan Leaf is 84 miles on a full charge. Level I charges at 110 volts. If you use the plug that comes with the vehicle and plug it into a regular wall socket at home, it will take 12 to 13 hours to fully charge a car.

By having Level 2 chargers throughout the city, the suburbs and rural areas of the KCP&L service area, that anxiety reduces greatly. If electric car owners know there is a charging station at a grocery store where they shop, at a soccer field or where they work, the more people will think about owning an electric car.

After all, it is cheaper to fill up.

“Most people in this area spend about $180 to $225 a month just on gas,” Caisley said. “It is $30 to $50 a month on electricity, which is about 80 cents a gallon for electricity.

“People have to get out of the mindset of a depot fuel system. ‘I take my car, go to a gas station, I fill my car and it takes me 5 minutes to get 300 miles of range.’”

Think about how you use your cell phone, Caisley said.

“Overnight, you plug it in. The only time of the day is it 100 percent is when you wake up,” he said. “You charge it in your car. You charge it at work. You are going from one lily pad to another, to top it off.

“An electric vehicle is the same way. You are at grocery store, top off; at work, top off. There is no range anxiety.”

Al Pugsley is president of MidAmerica Electric Auto Association, which is a club for electric car owners. He appreciates what KCP&L is doing. Pugsley owns two electric cars: a Nissan Leaf and a Tesla.

“I think it is one of the best in the country,” Pugsley said of KCP&L’s charging system. “I don’t know of any other place that has done this. I think it is a leading-edge opportunity for Kansas City.

“If we can move away from our dependence on oil and have more of our transportation needs covered by electricity, which we can generate from the sun, we are going to be a lot better off.”

The success of this project by KCP&L has the potential to benefit everybody the company serves, whether they own an electric car or not.

Electric rates are based on the cost of the KCP&L operating system divided by the amount of electrical usage.

“The problem is that the cost of operating the system is going up, but the number of kilowatts used has kind of plateaued, which means rates are growing faster than they have at any other point in our company’s history,” Caisley said. “It is not a phenomenon that is unique to KCP&L. It is going on all over the United States. Growth in electrical usage has plateaued.

“A very tangible benefit about this is by people using this as a fuel source for their car, they are going to help keep costs level or even decrease in time by using a more economical form of transportation.”

KCP&L hopes other utility companies across the country develop similar programs.

“Chuck has been traveling around educating the utility industry on how to make this happen,” said Kate McDonald, director of corporate communications at KCP&L. “The goal is to have the whole country have this happen. If you leave Kansas City and go on a road trip, you can continually see electric charging stations.”

And that is the main goal in Kansas City. Caisley said it is important for people to see these electric charging stations. He hopes it also sparks other businesses throughout the city to build charging stations.

“If people can’t see it everywhere they go, it will not be forefront in their minds,” Caisley said. “I want this where you shop, do social activities, where you obtain medical care. We want it where you go every day.

“Once you buy an electric car, you don’t want to wait for people to put up an electric charging station near you. You want to get to an electric station like you get electricity today, which is when you want it, how you want it and how much you want it.”

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 6:04 PM with the headline "KCP&L’s charging station project anticipates growth of electric cars."