HECO develops online tool to facilitate the siting of EV charging stations

Hawaiian Electric has developed an online tool designed to facilitate the installation of electric vehicle charging stations by showing available capacity on the electric grid at the circuit level.

The Electric Vehicle Charger Siting Tool is geared toward users such as EV service providers, fleet operators and government agencies who can use the tool’s map to determine which areas may be more suitable for the installation of charging equipment, particularly fast chargers.

“Hawaiian Electric aims to enable charging for Hawaiʻi’s growing number of electric vehicles,” said Aki Marceau, Hawaiian Electric’s director of electrification of transportation. “One way to catalyze growth is to provide greater transparency about where charging stations could be installed more quickly and cost-effectively.”

Hawaiian Electric joins about two dozen utilities nationally that have created maps designed to better support the planning and siting of EV charging infrastructure.

Users can navigate to a potential charger site on the map using the cursor or by entering the location’s address or GPS coordinates. Locations are shaded based on the estimated available capacity of a nearby circuit, as measured at the start of that circuit. Areas in green may have available capacity greater than 1 megawatt (MW), areas in orange may have available capacity between 500 kilowatts (kW) and 1 MW, and areas in red may have available capacity less than 500 kW.

The tool is meant to provide a high-level overview at the beginning of the site selection process, including an indication of the level of investment that may be needed to support the installation of a charging station. Proposed projects must still go through Hawaiian Electric’s established service request and interconnection process, including a site-specific engineering analysis.

The EV Charger Siting Tool is available at hawaiianelectric.com/EVChargerSitingTool.