National Fire Code Association Rejects Proposed Changes to EV Charging Code

Recently, at the 2023 National Fire Code Association (NFPA) Technical Meeting, the membership addressed motions provided by two organizations to amend the proposed NFPA 30A chapter on EV Charging at motor fueling facilities. Amendments were proposed by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and ChargePoint. The amendment proposed by NEMA deletes the majority of the proposed chapter with the exception of three lines of code that require Electric Vehicle Power Transfer Systems (the charger) to be: (1) installed in accordance with NFPA 70 and the manufacturer instructions, (2) operated and maintained in accordance with the manufacturer instructions, and (3) provided with collision protection. ChargePoint proposed nine individual motions with specific changes to various sections of the proposed code. The Technical Committee members present at the meeting addressed the NEMA motion first and voted to approve the NEMA amendment.

As a result, the committee did not take action on the ChargePoint amendments. The NEMA amendment is predicated on their belief that the necessary safety criteria for EV charging at a gas station is already found in existing NFPA 30A and NFPA 70 requirements and that there is no need for NFPA 30A to address EV Charging. The NFPA 30A Technical Committee will vote on whether to agree or disagree with the approved amendment; however, either way the end result will be no EV Charging requirements in NFPA 30A. If the Technical Committee votes in favor of the amendment, the 2024 edition will include the three lines of code mentioned above. If the Technical Committee votes against the amendment, the 2024 edition will revert back to the current version of NFPA 30A which does not include any code related to EV charging or Electric Vehicle Power Transfer Systems.