In September 2011, the University of Louisville installed 6 Level II Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations in the Floyd Street garage as shown in Figure 1 below. The General Electric (GE) DuraStation charging stations were procured by the university to help promote electric vehicle research. The cost of procurement of the 6 EV chargers and installation was split between the university and the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. No private or public grants were utilized for the infrastructure procurement or installation.
Two areas of on-going research involve:
- Developing a Power Control and Monitoring System (PCMS) to minimize the impact EV chargers will have on the peak-demand electric rates for Consumer and Industrial (C&I) users, such as UofL.
- Investigating the economics and payback of integrating solar power with EV charging and PCMS above.
The installation of the 6 level II charging stations also included the designation of special marked EV parking within the Floyd Street garage and the development of signage to designate those areas. Signage includes parking signs installed at each EV charging station, and specialized green striping and painted labels for each parking spot as shown on the right of Figure 1 below.
