In 2019, Seven States Power, along with a group of their strategic partners, won an EV-related grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to add even more chargers to the region’s EV network.
Seven States – and strategic partners Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Nissan and ChargePoint – were joined by Tennessee Technological University, the University of Texas at Austin, Lighting Systems, East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition, the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency and Lyft in applying for the DOE grant, which runs through 2022.
The DOE project seeks to provide an alternative-fuel proof of concept in regions where those alternative fuels are not yet fully adopted. The terms of the grant shared by the Seven States group call for Tennessee Technological University to receive $780,000 from the DOE; that money will be combined with additional matching funds, making the total value of the project $1.56 million. The grant funds will be used to develop an EV testbed in Tennessee’s Upper Cumberland region. This testbed will support the growth of the number of EV chargers available to owners of electric vehicles in the Tennessee Valley. In 2020, Seven States completed the installation of eight Level 2 chargers throughout the Upper Cumberland region and one DC Fast Charger on the campus of TTU.
