The Charging Problem for State Parks
- Tyler Phillipi
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 20 hours ago
We've always known that Reservoir was built for tight-power situations. Fleet depots running out of capacity and sites waiting years for utility upgrades were the problems we designed as the solution. But recently, we got an inbound inquiry that opened up a whole category we hadn't fully considered - state and national parks.
About 30 states have adopted aggressive fleet electrification policies. That means park fleets and the municipal and utility support vehicles operating in and around these sites are all on a timeline to go electric. Add to that the growing expectation to offer charging for park visitors arriving in EVs, and suddenly, these sites have a serious infrastructure problem on their hands.
Here’s the catch: most parks and remote recreational sites have very limited power. They're often using most of what's available just to keep basic operations running, and getting more power isn't realistic. Running new transmission lines to remote locations is expensive, and even if funding were available, you could be looking at a wait of 30+ months with the utility. That’s three years before a single EV can be charged.
Serviceability is another challenge. A broken charger in a remote location isn't just an inconvenience; it's a liability. Hard-to-find parts and expensive service contracts make unreliable charging equipment a real risk for sites without dedicated maintenance resources.
These are exactly the two problems that Reservoir was built for.
Reservoir operates on 480V three-phase or single-phase service and still delivers up to 200 kW of DC fast charging. No utility upgrade required or years of waiting. Everything is contained in a single integrated, UL-certified system with no major construction required to stand one up. You forklift it off the truck, wire it in, and within days you're charging.
On the service side, we have a national team within three hours of most locations in the lower 48, backed by Orange EV's service network. Remote sites aren't a problem for us.
We're early in understanding this market, and this first engagement has taught us a lot. If you're working on electrification for state or federal parks, whether you're running an RFP, chasing a grant, or just trying to figure out if charging is even possible at a given site, let's talk. We can help with equipment, installation, planning, and navigating funding programs.
This is exactly the kind of problem we built for.
