Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) announced the launch of an employee personal vehicle charging pilot project at seven locations. These locations already have charging facilities for clean corporate vehicles in the utility’s fleet.

Employees will pay market rates for electricity through personal accounts with ChargePoint, which provides the chargers and handles billing. PG&E and other regulated utilities are barred from directly selling charging services to the public, according to the utility.

The locations include PG&E’s main office in San Francisco, Oakland airport, several sites in San Ramon, and one in San Luis Obispo. The Level 2 chargers will fully charge a Chevrolet Volt in about four hours, or longer for an all-electric vehicle, the utility said.

“We already have the charging infrastructure for our own fleet, so we thought, why not make it available to employees for personal use,” said David Meisel, PG&E’s senior director for transportation services. “If this pilot is successful, we plan to increase the number of charging locations for employees, and to share lessons learned with other employers to help stimulate broader adoption of electrified vehicles.”

In California, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates nearly 1,800 public charging stations and more than 5,200 public charging outlets located in the state — more than a quarter of the national total.

On top of that, a 2012 survey by CALSTART estimated that an additional 800 charging stations were available to employees of 27 companies in the state. More companies like PG&E are joining their ranks every year.

In addition to being ranked the 8th largest commercial fleet in the country in 2013, with more than 14,800 vehicles reported to be in operation, the utility is also recognized as one of the top electric vehicle fleets in 2013.

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