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[Richard230]

It looks like the "Electric Highway" is going to be greatly expanded, at least in California, thanks to a settlement announced yesterday reached with NRG Energy. As part of a $120 million settlement with the State PUC, NRG will spend $100 million to build 200 440-V fast chargers along California freeways and "will install wiring for 10,000 conventional recharging units at 1,000 colleges, hospitals, apartments and large work sites around the state", according to an article in my newspaper today, written by Mike Taugher of the bayareanewsgroup.com.  The other $20 million of the settlement will go towards to the PUC to reduce customers electric utility bills (that won't go very far).  It could take up to four years for NRG to install the 440-volt fast charge stations, which will be built along highway arteries in the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and in Southern California.

Once the wiring for the more conventional 240-V recharging stations is installed, customers can pay a vendor to install charging equipment. NRG will have exclusive access to those customers for 18 months, but after that interval, customers can switch to another vendor.

The agreement with NRG claims that Dynegy Energy overcharged California in a power contract signed in 2001, during the height of a costly electricity crisis that drove PG&E into bankruptcy. NRG acquired Dynegy's California assets in 2006, according to the article.

[Richard230]

Someone is trying to put a bump in the Electric Highway.  According to the business section of my newspaper, in an article written by Dana Hull of Mecurynews.com, the State is being sued by Ecotality, a San Francicso-based maker of electric car charging stations to overturn the agreement with NRG Energy to build thousands of charging stations in CA.  In their suit, Ecotality contends that the State's settlement agreement was illegal and hurts consumers. The claim is that requiring NRG to build $100 million in charging station infrastructure gives them too much of a head start on other companies and will create a charging station monopoly for NRG in California.  The lawsuit asks the state Court of Appeals to block the agreement and direct the PUC to cease and desist any efforts to implement it.

Apparently, no charging stations is better than lots of charging stations, if only one company gets to build them.