Cutoff of some EV charging stations in Tashkent is due to the use of public land without legal right to do so and the likely risk of overloading the power grid, stated the Deputy Mayor in charge of Transport and Road Infrastructure Abdurakhmon Bakhtiev at a press conference Thursday.
He called the disconnecting of EV charging stations a lose-lose situation for everyone – both station operators and EV owners.
"But the lsw is the law. To install a charging station on a public land, one must bid and win in an electronic auction. Often, the electric charging stations that have now been disconnected are located on municipal land, were not purchased through an auction... Therefore, we have to disconnect them," the deputy mayor explained.
Abdurakhmon Bakhtiev called the shutdown of the charging stations a necessary step. He also emphasized that the load on the power grid was sharply rising in winter and summer.
However, the authorities do not intend to simply ban this business. The city administration has already begun discussions with companies officials to find a solution.
"We are working on amending the law to allow allocating land for charging stations. Admittedly, there is some bureaucracy and areas that need to be improved. We are studying international experience and have set up contact with the World Bank, which has a project to improve permitting procedures in this area," he added.
Earlier, the city administration reported that it had begun inspecting the electric charging station infrastructure. Of the more than 1,300 fast-charging stations, over 300 have been inspected. While, 101 stations are temporarily disconnected due to missing documents, and another 62 lack contracts with energy suppliers.
