ATHOL – Members of the Energy Committee met Tuesday afternoon with Paul DeMaria and Joseph Duquette, representatives of Worcester-based Commonwealth Electrical Technologies, to discuss the installation of new electric vehicle charging stations.

Commonwealth has been awarded a contract by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center last November to work with 15 municipalities across the state to install on-street charging stations for electric vehicles. Up to three charging stations will be supplied to each of the communities chosen to participate in the program. In addition, 25 communities will receive EV charging planning support and feasibility studies at no cost.

Planning and Development Director Eric Smith said the town would work on the grant application with help from the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission. The application is due Feb. 14.

“This is a very unique opportunity for us,” said Duquette. “What Massachusetts is looking for is locations that have apartment complexes or condo associations.”

Duquette said it’s hoped that everything from planning to installation will be completed within two years. The state, said Duquette, is looking for installations to be made across all areas of Massachusetts. He added that every community is eligible, regardless of their electrical supplier.

“We’re looking at a pretty fast turnaround,” he said. “Everything will be taken care of as far as all the infrastructure, the installation, the engineering, then everything in the cloud will be taken care of for five years for you.”

Asked by committee member Katalin Krieger about his reference to “the cloud,” Duquette responded, “If there’s a problem with a hardware breakdown, it’s relatively easy to take care of, but we’re finding that 90% of all problems are in the software. So, we would cover any of those problems for five years.”

“If it wasn’t a cloud issue,” Krieger followed up, “would we be responsible for that or would that be something you would take care of?”

Duquette assured her that those problems would also be addressed by Commonwealth Electric.

“If we were chosen,” asked committee member Tom Russo, “how many stations would we get?”

“We would come out and walk the town with you and pick two or three possible locations where they could be installed and then go from there,” Duquette responded. “Ideally, we could pick two or three locations.”

Criteria for inclusion in the program includes a high percentage of renters in the community, available on-street parking near multifamily residential housing, and a LIDAC (low-income and disadvantaged community) designation.

Asked if the municipality would eventually assume all responsibility for the charging stations, Duquette answered in the affirmative.

“That’s all negotiable,” he said. “It all depends on what we can offer you. But you’d generally get them after five or ten years.”

According to information provided by Commonwealth Electric, the On-Street Parking Solutions Program “aims to promote wide-scale EV adoption across the Commonwealth by increasing access to curbside EV charging infrastructure in Massachusetts Communities, with an emphasis on low income/disadvantaged communities.”

When announcing the program, the Healy-Driscoll administration said funding for the program comes from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) monies.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.