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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10 Plug In Electric Vehicle Public Access Charging Station. I` To: Board of Directors From: Steven Poncelet Date. March 18, 2015 Subject: Discussion Regarding Plug-in Electric Vehicle Public Access Charging Stations 1. WHY THIS MATTER IS BEFORE THE BOARD This item is before the Board to discuss the emergence of Plug -In Electric Vehicles (PEV's) in our community and to prepare for impacts to the District's electric load, distribution system, and the opportunity to provide public access charging services. 2. HISTORY The emergence of Plug -In Electric Vehicles (PEV's) is well documented with explosive growth in sales of PEV's nationally in the last few years. PEV's have evolved from a niche technology, through the hybrid phase, to the high -performing all -electric vehicles that exist today. Tesla is leading the charge in high -end vehicles with exceptional performance and the ability to travel long distances (>300 miles) and recharge in only � 20 minutes. More affordable cars, like the Nissan Leaf, have not achieved the long range but do have the fast -charge option. Many other vehicle manufacturers (Toyota, GM, VW, Fiat, etc.) are quickly releasing PEV's and the costs to purchase PEV's are dropping while the distance between charges and the time needed to charge PEV's are improving. Electric utilities in California are tracking the emergence of PEV's and the District is actively investigating the impact of PEV's to electric load, our distribution system, and as an opportunity to provide public access charging services to our customers and community. Larger publicly -owned utilities, such as Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, Silicon Valley Power, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Burbank Water and Power, and Lodi Electric to name a few, have seen strong growth of PEV's in their territories and have installed hundreds of public access charging stations in response. For Truckee and the greater community, the District has seen increased installation of PEV charging stations in homes and businesses (such as Cedar House) and the significant investment by Tesla in their private charging network (>$1,000,000 and counting). The District, specifically, has been active in PEV's since the installation of our public access charging station in Meadow Park in 2005. This Clipper Creek charging station project was largely funded under a grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC). Usage on this site has been very low to date, however, if increased dramatically in the last 2-years with average monthly number growing from 14 kWh/month to 78 kWh/month (>500%). Although this remains a relatively small usage, the dramatic growth is consistent with the trend of increased sales of PEV's and increased investment in our community. The District did purchase a PEV in 2013 for our fleet (Toyota Rav 4) and we are testing the vehicle for overall performance and cost of ownership. PEV charging falls into defined categories which include home charging, workplace charging, destination charging, and corridor charging. Truckee has some components of all categories but destination (2nd home -owners and visitors) and corridor charging (Interstate 80) are important components and Truckee is also the gateway to Lake Tahoe and the Northern Sierra. PEV charging systems include: 110VAC (Level 1, ~10 hours to charge); 220 VAC (Level 2, �2 hours to charge); and 480 VDC (Fast Chargers or Level 3, ~20 minutes to charge). There are many charger connector types but this is standardizing quickly. The District's PEV uses a 220 VAC Level 2 charger and the Tesla installation behind Safeway has 480 VDC Fast Chargers. PEV drivers are clearly motivated by faster charge times but there are many destinations (such as Truckee downtown, ski resorts, restaurants, shops, etc.) where a 2-hour charge is acceptable and in which case there could also be economic development benefits from bringing PEV's to our community. The current District charging station, as a requirement of the CEC grant, is free for PEV users. Although this was deemed necessary 10-years ago when the program was developed, and there were very low numbers of PEV's/charging stations, the rational to provide free charging is going away. The vast majority of electric utilities in California now charge a fee for charging at public access charging stations and many more are monetizing existing free pubic access charging stations. District staff has leveraged the California Municipal Utilities Association's (CMUA's) Electric Transportation Committee to gain access the the 10+ year PEV efforts of some of the 30+ POU members. In addition, staff has participated in meetings sponsored by Governor Brown's office and the CEC designed to promote the adoption of PEV's and the required charging infrastructure. The District was successful in getting the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) to apply for a $200,000 Zero - Emission Vehicle Planning Grant which will include the Truckee area. If awarded, the resulting will greatly help the District's effort to understand the future impacts of PEV's. In addition, staff has been tracking CEC PEV charging infrastructure grants which could help offset the installation costs of public access charging stations. 3. NEW INFORMATION District staff believe that it is time to install additional pilot PEV public access charging stations to start generating the operational and financial experience needed to evaluate the impact of PEV's on our electric utility and the opportunity to provide PEV public access charging stations to our customers and community. Staff have reached out to our colleagues at Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), who own and operate over 200 PEV public access charging stations, and through the benefits of joint -action have secured full specifications and designs, for installations of both 220 VAC (Level 2) and 480 VDC (Fast Chargers). This includes both the public access charging stations (and parking spots) along with the electric utility's design to serve and meter the load. It is important to note that the District is somewhat unique in the large number of second home owners and visitors that the Truckee area gets from Sacramento and the Bay Area. Those customers, served at home by SMUD, Silicon Valley Power, Palo Alto Electric Utility, Alameda Municipal Power, and PG&E, are also District customers and they have been seeing PEV's and public access charging infrastructure for years. There is an opportunity, again through POU joint -action, to standardize the design and installation of PEV public access charging infrastructure and payment systems in a way that would avoid confusion and accelerate the adoption of PEV's. There is also the opportunity to leverage other POU competitive procurement processes to streamline purchase of the PEV charging equipment. District staff are investigating a pilot PEV public access charging stations for installation this summer. Staff is also preparing to apply for an upcoming CEC PEV Public Access Charging infrastructure grants that would be used for additional installations in 2016/2017. The initial pilot installations for this summer would be at one or two locations in the District's service territory and are envisioned to each have two, Level 2 chargers 'Ala SMUD' (meaning that they would copy SMUD's specifications and designs, use the same back -office system for payment, but would be branded for the District and our partners). Staff have had numerous meetings seeking parking spots to locate the chargers with the Town of Truckee, Holliday Development/Railyard, and Summit Builders/Pioneer Commerce Center. The District is asking for zero cost leases for the charging locations, the District would design, procure, and install the charging stations, and the land -owner would be responsible for snow removal and paving/striping maintenance. The District would fund these projects using existing, budgeted public -benefit funds. In parallel to this summer's pilot 220 VAC (Level 2) PEV public access charging stations, District staff are preparing to submit a grant application to the CEC for their upcoming PEV Public Access Charging infrastructure grants. The CEC held a workshop regarding this upcoming grant but the final requirements have yet to be released. In the past, the maximum CDC infrastructure grant award has been $500,000 and this is the amount that the District would seek. The full scope of the grant applications needs to be developed but would would leverage this summers pilot locations and propose to expand them to include the 480 VDC (Fast Chargers). Fast Chargers are typical targeted at corridor applications and which are significantly more expensive than the 220 VAC (Level 2) chargers. The discussions with the Town of Truckee, Holliday Development/Railyard, and Summit Builders/Pioneer Commerce Center involve potential locations for this summers pilot installations and the ability to expand each site should the District be successful in securing the CEC funding. The technical details of a given installation are being worked out and involve electrical design, civil design (mounting equipment, paving, and striping), and back -office equipment/systems to process payment. These PEV public access charging installation are subject to evolving ADA compliance requirements which are increasing the real estate needed to install the charging stations and adding costs to the project. For this summer's pilot installations - two 220 VAC (Level 2) PEV Public Access charging stations per location in two parking spots - staff isestimating the costs to be between $20,000-$30,000 per location. At this point, the Railyard/Truckee River Glass location and the Pioneer Commerce Center locations appear to be the front-runners based on location attribute, cost of installation, ease of reaching a lease agreement and meeting this summer's schedule. For the future installations, should the District be successful in securing a CEC grant or other funding, District staff are estimating the costs to be ~$100,000 per 480 VDC (Fast Chargers). For the CEC grant, staff would look for a combination of 480 VDC (Fast Charges) at the three locations to secure the maximum $500,000 grant. These cost estimates are based on other utilities costs and are preliminary. These estimates would need to be refined for each given location and combination of 220VAC (Level 2) and 480 VDC (Fast Chargers) envisioned for each site. District staff are anticipating hiring a consultant with experience securing CEC PEV Public Access Charging infrastructure grants and estimate the cost to be �$10,0009 Should the District pursue the full plan as outlined above, key next steps and overall required actions would include: a Securing lease agreements with the land -owners for parking spots to install the PEV Public Access charging infrastructure; • Completing the design for this summer's 220 VAC (Level 2) pilot installations, procuring the equipment, installation, and signage; • Hiring a consultant to write the CEC PEV Public Access charging infrastructure grants; ® Supporting TRPA's Zero -Emission Vehicle Plan (should they be successful with the current CEC grant application); • Following the formal process to update District code to cover PEV Public Access Charging (including the need to establish a new electric rate for charging); • Installing in 2016/2017 the 480 VDC (Fast Chargers) should the District be successful in securing one or both of the CEC PEV Public Access Charging infrastructure grant; • Gain operational and financial experience in the process of owning and operating monetized PEV Public Access Charging stations; and • By the end of 2017 understand and document the impacts of PEV's to the Electric Utilities load and distribution system and present a business case on the opportunity for the District to provide PEV Public Access Charging services to our customers and community. 4. FISCAL IMPACT There is no fiscal impact associated with this workshop item. Some estimated costs were included in previous sections. Funds for this year's proposed pilot installations and to hire a consultant for the CEC PEV Public Access Charging infrastructure grant are available from the FY15 approved budget. Items requiring Board approval as per District code would be brought before the Board. Future costs and revenues need to be evaluated. 5. RECOMMENDATION Receive this report and provide feedback. Steven Poncelet Public Information &Conservation Manager Michael D. Holley General Manager