Beginning today, businesses, government agencies and other organizations in the Southland will be able to sign up to participate in Southern California Edison’s Charge Ready program, the nation’s largest electric passenger vehicle charging infrastructure program run by an investor-owned electric utility company.

The $436-million program, approved by the state last year, will add about 38,000 new electric car chargers throughout SCE’s service area over the next five years.

Through Charge Ready, SCE installs and maintains the supporting EV charging infrastructure while site hosts, who are nonresidential SCE customers, typically own, operate and maintain qualified charging stations.

“As SCE is preparing its electric grid to serve the increase in transportation electrification, more charging equipment is needed to give EV drivers and fleet operators the peace of mind that they will be able to charge whenever they want,” said Carter Prescott, SCE director of eMobility and Building Electrification. “Today, we are asking our customers to join with us to ensure that an effective framework is in place for a clean air future for our communities.”

The large-scale program introduced at a virtual event today is modeled after a much smaller pilot that ended in May, in which SCE partnered with businesses, local governments and other organizations to add more than 2,700 charge ports at nearly 150 sites.

The first site to participate in the pilot was the city of Lynwood, where six chargers were installed four years ago to charge the city’s fleet of EVs, and eight more were installed in the civic center public parking lot.

Lynwood City Council member José Solache was on hand to share the city’s experience with those interested in the program and give them an idea of what to expect.

“Edison has always been a good partner with the city of Lynwood, and we were definitely excited that Charge Ready helped us meet our goal of transitioning to a cleaner fleet,” said Solache, who is himself an EV owner. “At the time, it was also exciting to be able to provide our residents with one of the few public charging sites in the area.”

Joining the panel with Solache was Walter Marquez, interim CEO of Fairplex, where SCE helped to install 200 ports at the 487-acre site that hosts the Los Angeles County Fair and 400 other events throughout the year.

“Being an early adopter, we are now actually able to help others who are contemplating expanding their infrastructure through Charge Ready, and we appreciate that partnership with SCE,” Marquez said. “We know that electric vehicles and charging are very much a part of what California is going to be in the future and where it’s headed now.”

SCE also helped the city of Long Beach install 102 ports at five sites, including the Aquarium of the Pacific, The Pike Outlets, City Place, the city’s fleet services yard and the Long Beach Police Academy.

“The best part of participating in Charge Ready is being able to provide a benefit to both our public and our fleet,” said April Walker, project management officer with the city. “Transitioning fleet vehicles to zero-emission and electric is a benefit because you’re reducing the emissions that go right back into these communities.”

Walker added that Long Beach would not have been able to achieve the expansion envisioned in its citywide EV charging network program without Charge Ready’s assistance.

SCE will continue to focus on providing charging infrastructure at workplaces, public parking lots, schools, hospitals and destination centers, with an added emphasis on condominium and apartment complexes.

In the interest of making EV charging available to all Californians, Charge Ready sets a target to locate 50% of the chargers in state-designated disadvantaged communities, or economically-impacted communities that suffer most from the negative effects of air pollution.

In addition to Charge Ready for passenger EVs, SCE launched a program last year for larger trucks, buses and off-road industrial equipment called Charge Ready Transport, which aims to add charging to support at least 8,490 medium- and heavy-duty EVs over a five-year period. The $356 million program is also modeled after the Charge Ready pilot.