By Jerry Nowicki
The effort to electrify the state’s transportation sector and ensure the power grid can meet increased demand involves the Illinois Commerce Commission, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the state’s Department of Transportation, and Illinois’ two largest public utilities, among others.
Between those agencies and utilities, there’s hundreds of millions of federal, state and ratepayer dollars available for EV charging infrastructure, vehicle rebates and other plans aimed at accelerating EV adoption.
While the regulatory force behind CEJA lies with several agencies, the task of ensuring all of them are working together lies in the hands of the state’s electric vehicles coordinator.
That person is Megha Lakhchaura, who was appointed to the position officially on July 1 at a salary of $180,000 after serving in an administrative capacity at IEPA since April.
She has previously served as the director of policy in North America for the electric vehicle supply company EVBox, policy director for the rooftop solar and battery storage provider Sunrun Inc., and public utilities regulatory analyst for the California Public Utilities Commission.
It’s a diverse private sector and regulatory experience which she said has helped her hit the ground running.
“So the job is basically figuring out how all of these pots of money work together,” Lakhchaura said in a recent interview with Capitol News Illinois. “What are the pieces that we have to look at? Where do we put our resources? How do we think of things comprehensively and having a comprehensive charging strategy for the state?”
Capital News Illinois – jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com
She praised the top-down vision laid out by the governor’s office and CEJA but said lawmakers and regulators will have to continue to adapt to meet the 1 million EV goal.
“CEJA is a good starting step,” she said. “I think that it sets up some very good practices. …It puts out a road for utilities, it puts out a rebate for vehicles, for charging. It’s a good first step, but we’re going to have to do more to get to 1 million vehicles.”