View Royal EV Charging Stations Update

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE REPORT

TO: Committee of the Whole DATE: June 8, 2022 FROM: Ivan Leung, P.Eng, Director of Engineering MEETING DATE: June 14, 2022

View Royal EV Charging Stations Update

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report titled “View Royal EV Charing Stations Update” dated June 8, 2022 from the Director of Engineering be received for information.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS:

I concur with the recommendation.

DIRECTOR OF FINANCE’S COMMENTS:

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

The purpose of this report is to update the Committee of the Whole on the current usage of the Town’s two (2) EV Charging stations as the fee for use has been in place since March 12, 2022

BACKGROUND:

In 2019 the Town of View Royal installed two (2) Level 2 FLO EV charging stations within the Municipality, located at:

1. View Royal Town Hall (upper parking lot)
2. Helmcken Centennial Park (Kingham Place parking lot)

While many Municipalities have implemented charging fees at their stations, the Town implemented free usage at the time of installation.

At the January 18, 2022 regular Council meeting, Council approved the charging of user fees at the Town owned EV charging stations as follows:

• $1.00 per hour for the first 3 hours
• Then $2.00 for each hour thereafter

No additional fees are accrued once the vehicle is fully charged or the user has unplugged the vehicle from the charging station.

User fee charges were initiated on March 12, 2022.

USAGE DETAILS:

Staff accessed usage data from the FLO charging network for the purposes of determining what changes in usage may have occurred since the implementation of user fees. The following two graphs show average weekly usage (described in KWh consumption per week) from inception to the end of May 2022:

[Chart: Figure 1: Centennial Park Usage (KWh per week)]

The data indicates a slight drop in usage immediately after March 12, 2022. However, the data also shows some recovery and the trend has continued similarly to usage prior to the charging of fees.

It should be noted that less than three months of user fee data was gathered. Additional monitoring is recommended to obtain a more accurate understanding of any change in usage.

[Chart: Figure 2: Town Hall Usage (KWh per week)]

FEES AND REVENUES:

Net revenues since March 12, 2022 are approximated and summarized in the table below:

Table 1: Revenue Breakdown

Electricity costs were estimated using BC Hydro charge rates established for each site.

Each station is also subject to FLO’s Global Management Service Contract fee, which is a required annual fee for networking. The fee is incidental to the installation of the charging station for the first two years. An annual fee of $150 per charging station is required after the two-year period has passed.

If it is assumed that the average usage remains constant for the rest of the year then the net annual revenue received from the two Town owned stations would be minimal at less than $500 per year. This estimate excludes any consideration of the internal administration effort to process payments, monitor and report on the service, or maintain the charging stations and surrounding area, as the incremental impact is considered minimal.

CONCLUSION:

Since adoption of charging user fees for the Town owned EV charging stations, the data currently shows a usage trend that is relatively similar to usage prior to the charging of user fees.

Extrapolating this data to the end of the year, the net revenue after fees, taxes and energy costs would be minimal: The revenues would cover the fees and charges with a small contingency.

It is recommended to continue to monitor usage for the remaining year to obtain an accurate picture of any change in usage.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report titled “View Royal EV Charing Stations Update” dated June 8, 2022 from the Director of Engineering be received for information.

SUBMITTED BY: I. Leung, Director of Engineering

REVIEWED BY: K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer