A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Armed Police Force and the Nepal Electricity Authority regarding the construction and operation of an electric vehicle charging station.

The MoU was signed by Inspector General Raju Aryal on behalf of the Armed Police Force and Executive Director Kulman Ghising on behalf of the Authority in a program held at the Armed Police Headquarters Halchok on Friday.

According to the MoU, charging stations will be established at 17 locations including 2 petrol pumps currently operated by the Armed Police Welfare Center and 15 suitable locations of Armed Police offices. The charging station will be operated under the welfare fund in the long run.

According to the MoU, the authority will purchase all the equipment and build the infrastructure of the charging station at its own expense. Repair and regular servicing of the equipment will also be done by the authority itself. The Armed Police will provide a suitable location for the construction of the infrastructure and after construction, will operate and protect the charging station. It has been arranged that charging stations cannot be allowed to be operated by third parties/organizations.

While operating the charging station, the authority should make arrangements to allow the general public to use it easily at the rate determined by the authority. The authority will collect the fee paid by the consumer while charging the vehicle. According to the provisions of the Electricity Distribution Regulations, the Welfare Center of the Armed Police will receive 50 percent of the total profit from the electricity tariff rate as operating and management expenses of the charging station.

The authority is constructing the stations that can charge quickly at 51 locations across the country to encourage the use of electric vehicles. Every charging station being constructed by the authority will be equipped with a 142 kW charger, a 50 kVA transformer for power supply, and an online billing system.

Fast charging 60 kilowatt DC and 22 kilowatt AC chargers will be placed at the charging station. With this, three vehicles including a big bus can be charged simultaneously.

The software of the charging station will be kept in the authority’s data center which can serve more than 300 chargers. All 50 stations will be controlled from Kathmandu. After charging the vehicle, the customer can pay the bill through the QR code and mobile app.

Earlier,A memorandum of understanding has already been signed between the Authority and the Nepal Police to establish charging stations at 25 different places.