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The Marblehead Municipal Light Department (MMLD) is proposing to more than double its public electric vehicle charging rate during peak hours and tighten overstay penalties, changes officials say are necessary to keep the town's growing charging network financially sustainable.
Energy programs manager Michael Hall presented the proposed rate overhaul to the Municipal Light Board at its March 3 meeting, warning that annual operating expenses for the department's five public charging stations now consume virtually all of the revenue those stations generate. The board discussed the proposal but did not vote, instead tabling the item for further review at its March 31 meeting.
The changes would directly affect drivers who use the town's 10 level 2 charging ports, spread across the Mary Alley Building, Roundhouse Road and MMLD headquarters. The stations currently serve an average of about 90 unique drivers per month, according to ChargePoint analytics Hall presented.
Under the current flat-rate policy, all users pay 20 cents per kilowatt-hour at any time of day, with a $5-per-hour overstay fee after six hours. The proposed structure would replace that with a two-tier, time-of-use model. During off-peak hours, the public rate would rise to 25 cents per kilowatt-hour. Between 4 and 9 p.m. on weekdays — the period that coincides with the system's highest wholesale energy costs — the rate would jump to 50 cents per kilowatt-hour. The overstay threshold would tighten from six hours to five.
A separate municipal rate would set off-peak charging at 10 cents per kilowatt-hour for town fleet vehicles, with the same 50-cent peak rate but no overstay fees. Hall said the department could distinguish municipal vehicles through RFID cards issued by ChargePoint.
Hall framed the changes around five challenges: rapid growth in charger use, a flat pricing model that fails to reflect peak-hour costs, elevated evening charging during high-demand periods, extended parking that reduces charger availability and the town's interest in electrifying its municipal fleet.
The financial picture underscored his case. In 2025, the public chargers generated $17,172 in gross charging revenue and $7,180 in overstay fees, for a gross total of $24,352, according to a slide Hall presented. Annual expenses for maintenance and estimated energy costs totaled roughly $16,433. Hall told the board those annual expenses essentially equaled the gross charging revenue, making the current rate unsustainable if the town wants to add more chargers.
Gross revenue has climbed steadily, rising from under $1,000 in 2020 to more than $22,000 in 2025, a bar chart in the presentation showed. But capital expenditures after state Electric Vehicle Incentive Program (EVIP) grants still totaled $10,981 for the Mary Alley stations, $11,858 for Roundhouse and $66,230 for a planned Brown School installation.
That Brown School project is now on hold. Hall told the board the department's EVIP application was denied because of a Title III noncompliance issue. General manager Jonathan W. Blair clarified that the installation contract with Fulcrum, a state-approved vendor, was written as contingent on the grant, so the department has no financial obligation.
"They really want to see this done as well," Hall said of Fulcrum's willingness to preserve the work and wait.
Applying the proposed rates to 2025 usage data, Hall projected the new structure would generate roughly $10,000 in additional annual revenue. Blair told the board the goal is not to turn the chargers into profit engines but to create a self-sustaining program that can install approximately one new station per year, with a payback period of two to five years.
Blair also noted that not all public charger users are Marblehead residents, and out-of-town drivers who charge during peak hours impose real costs on permanent ratepayers.
"If they're going to charge at 6 p.m. on a peak day and obligate our permanent customers to higher peak charges at the wholesale level, we should absolutely recover that full cost and then some from those types of drivers," Blair said.
Several commissioners raised questions about the proposal's effect on overnight users. Board chair Jean-Jacques Yarmoff noted that drivers who plug in after 9 p.m. and cannot return within five hours would face steep overstay charges — potentially making overnight public charging more expensive than peak-hour sessions. Commissioner Simon Frechette suggested the board consider a third rate tier for Marblehead residents and a graduated overstay fee based on how long a vehicle exceeds the limit.
Blair said staff would research three questions before March 31: whether a separate resident rate is feasible, whether a ratcheting overstay penalty could work and whether the overstay fee could be suspended overnight. He said the board could vote at its next meeting and revisit the policy six months later if unintended consequences arise.
The next regular board meeting is scheduled for March 31 at 4 p.m.
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