Electric Vehicle Charging – National Grid

West Roxbury, Massachusetts

With a vision to enhance parking layouts and streamline traffic flow, National Grid partnered with BL Companies to improve the parking layout and traffic flow at their Rivermoor Street facility. As part of this project, they will install electric vehicle (EV) charging stations for a portion of the fleet vehicles.

To develop a better understanding of the existing site use, representatives from BL Companies met with National Grid on-site. They identified high-traffic areas, typical daily schedules and foot traffic areas. Based on this information, BL Companies created a new parking lot layout to group similar vehicles, provide easier access to equipment, and establish a designated walking path from the employee parking area to the office building and fleet vehicle parking.

Approximately 90 EV charging stalls will be designed by BL Companies to charge fleet vehicles overnight and provide employees with charging stations at work. The charging stations will be clustered to minimize conduit runs and pavement trench repair.

In order to meet the requirements of the preferred charger model provided by National Grid, BL Companies designed custom charging stations. They reviewed the positioning, bollards, cord length, and extender arms for fleet vehicles to ensure the chargers are easy to use and protected from damage during use. The design also addresses the needs of longer vehicles and newer EV models that have charger points at varying locations. Safe “back-in” spaces will be provided to accommodate the need for longer cords or extender arms on commercial fleets.

To meet the needs of 24-hour operation, two types of charging stations are included in the design. Most are L2 chargers that may charge a vehicle to capacity in 8 hours. The remaining chargers are L3 chargers that may charge a vehicle to capacity in only 1 to 2 hours. This mix of charger types allows National Grid to charge fleet vehicles quickly during busy operational times.