NYPA Press Release

Lynne Smith | lynne.smith@nypa.gov | (914) 681-6916

Stewart’s Shops Expands EV Network: Schodack Charger Installation Completed, First of Five Stewart’s-New York Power Authority EVolve NY Charging Network Sites to Be Installed by Year End

Charging Hub Advances State’s Clean Energy Goals for Expanded

Electrification of the Transportation Sector

View Photos Here and Here

ALBANY—The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has partnered with Stewart’s Shops on the official opening of a four-unit charging station located southeast of Albany at Stewart’s Shops’ Schodack store in Rensselaer County in the Capital Region. The site is the first of five high-speed electric vehicle charging hubs that will be available across the Capital and North Country regions at Stewart’s Shops by the end of the year. NYPA is partnering with the family-owned convenience store chain to install the stations as part of New York State’s growing EVolveNY fast EV charging network. The charging network expansion is the latest example of the state’s efforts to advance its nation-leading clean energy goals, including decarbonizing the transportation sector and reducing the overall greenhouse gas emissions 85% by 2050. NYPA and Stewart’s leadership celebrated the new chargers coming online today in Schodack.

“It’s through public-private partnerships like this one with Stewart’s Shops that NYPA is able to expand its EVolve NY fast charging network,” said Justin Driscoll, interim NYPA president and CEO. “New Yorkers can shop at Stewart’s while charging their EVs. Stewart’s is an iconic brand in the Capital Region and our hope is that NYPA’s EVolve NY chargers also will become part of that community fabric, providing increased access to fast charging for more New Yorkers.”

“By partnering with EVolve NY, we are proud to offer our customers more options for ‘filling’ up their tanks. As an energy provider for today and into the future, we have the ability to fuel any vehicle and grow our EV network at strategic locations,” said Stewart’s Shops President Gary Dake.

Four additional charging stations will open later this year at Stewart’s Shops locations throughout New York State in Moreau, Clifton Park and Latham in the Capital Region, and in Keene in the North Country. Four more Stewart’s Shops charging stations are proposed for 2022. The new four-charger hub in Schodack, 30 minutes south of Albany, just off I-90, brings the total number of EVolve NY fast chargers in New York to nearly 40.

The fast chargers can be used by any make or model of electric vehicle and can fully charge an EV in as little as 20 minutes. The first location, at 1811 Columbia Turnpike in Schodack, will be the ninth installation in NYPA’s EVolve NY network. NYPA will construct, own and operate the hubs in coordination with Stewart’s site hosts.

The Stewart’s sites are the latest addition to the NYPA’s EVolveNY electric vehicle fast charging network, which is bringing high-speed open access charging to key locations along primary travel corridors and in urban areas to encourage the adoption of EVs. The clean energy initiative supports New York’s Climate Act (the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act), the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation which establishes targets for decreasing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from the transportation sector. 

Stewart’s Shops, a family owned and operated chain of more than 350 convenience stores and gas stations in New York and Vermont, currently has four Tesla supercharging stations throughout the state with plans to expand the program with three more by the end of 2022.

The chain gathers solar energy at offsite locations in Halfmoon and Castle Creek, N.Y., and its manufacturing plant has 2,400 individual solar panels on the rooftop that together offset 75% of the power used at 50 locations. Stewart’s recycles more than six tons of cardboard daily and reduces waste with the use of reusable totes and trays to make deliveries. In stores, customers are encouraged to use reusable mugs and many shops have been remodeled with LED lighting.

The Schodack site will have three 150-kW Direct Current Fast Charger (DCFC) stations and one 350-kW charger, which is capable of charging a compatible vehicle at speeds up to 20 miles per minute. Two of the charging stations will be equipped with both fast charging connectors, Combined Charging System (CCS) and CHAdeMO, so all electric vehicles, including Tesla cars with an adapter, can plug in. One parking space meets ADA compliance.

NYPA’s EVolve NY initiative plans to install up to 100 chargers across New York State by the end of 2021 to give New York the third largest open-access (available to all EVs) 150-kW+ fast charging network in the U.S. Once the EVolve NY buildout phase is complete, New Yorkers will be able to drive any EV across the state with fast chargers capable of recharging their vehicles in 15-30 minutes, located every 50 miles or less.

Other EVolve NY sites open throughout the state include John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGrangeville, Oneonta, Syracuse, Watertown, Malone, Schroon Lake, Fairport and now Schodack.

“The team at PlugIn Stations Online, LLC (PISO) is proud to have completed the site construction, installation, and commissioning of the ABB Terra HP charging stations at the Stewart's in Schodack,” said PISO owner John Doran. “Customers will be able to use these eight ports to charge between 100 kW and 350 kW, making fast charging more accessible to the EV market. This hub is another part of the rapidly expanding infrastructure that makes the adoption of electric vehicles possible.”

EV owners can locate public chargers using smartphone apps such as Greenlots, PlugShare, ChargeHub, ChargeWay, Google Maps, or the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center.

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New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan
New York State’s nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York is on a path to achieve its mandated goal of a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and to reach economy wide carbon neutrality. It builds on New York's unprecedented investments to ramp-up clean energy including over $21 billion in 91 large-scale renewable projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce buildings emissions, $1.8 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives, and over $1.2 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. Combined, these investments are supporting more than 150,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector in 2019, a 2,100 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011 and a commitment to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Under the Climate Act, New York will build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while ensuring that at least 35 percent with a goal of 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities, and advance progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs of end-use energy savings.

About Stewart’s

Founded in 1945, Stewart’s Shops is an employee and family-owned convenience store chain based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Stewart’s is known for offering milk, ice cream, coffee, food to go, gasoline, and other convenience items. Today there are over 350 Stewart’s Shops located across 32 counties across upstate New York and southern Vermont.

About NYPA

NYPA is the largest state public power organization in the nation, operating 16 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. More than 80 percent of the electricity NYPA produces is clean renewable hydropower. NYPA uses no tax money or state credit. It finances its operations through the sale of bonds and revenues earned in large part through sales of electricity. For more information visit

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