WESTLOCK – There will soon be three new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Westlock for drivers to use, which are expected to be “on and operational” within three weeks.
Town of Westlock community services director Gerry Murphy confirmed July 17 that three EV charging stations were installed at locations around town the weekend of July 8, including one Level 2, dual-port charger at the Heritage Building, a Level 2, dual-port charger at the Aquatic Centre and a Level 3, dual-port charger at the Rotary Spirit Centre. An engineer did a final inspection July 19 before bollards were installed to protect the equipment.
“The bollards will go in and then we’ve got some programming to do and that involves connecting the EV chargers to a database,” said Murphy. “We need that up and running before we turn them on so you’ll have a way to pay for charging vehicles.”
The chargers are expected to be up and running by mid-August and all three will be digitally operated. Murphy noted in addition to the town’s charging stations, there is currently two other Level 2 chargers at Peavey Mart and Westlock Ford.
“With a lot of EV chargers, you’ll purchase a pre-paid card and you’ll buy so many kilowatts of power and these chargers fill up your car,” explained Murphy. “You swipe or tap your card or you’ll be able to use a credit card.”
The charger was on the town’s capital budget plan for a number of years and councillors approved a capital budget amendment last August to pave the way for the installs.
The three chargers cost $193,000 and includes $140,000 in grant funding from the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre, $51,433 from general operating reserves and $1,567 from a corporate contribution. Revenue generated by the charges is expected to cover energy costs, warranty, repairs, connectivity, and replacement of the units making it a user-pay system.
Murphy pointed out that electricity for the EV charger at the RSC will come from solar power.
“Because of all the solar panels that we have on the Spirit Centre, we do generate quite a bit of electricity with those panels,” he said, adding that the town will monitor the newly installed chargers and their usage.
The fast-charging capability on the Level 3 charger will be an attractive feature for users with electric vehicles.
“We’ll be able to determine its usage by how much power we’ve charged out and how much revenue we’ve collected and through that program we’ll have a pretty good idea of what the uptake is,” said Murphy.
“We’re expecting a pretty good uptake with the Level 3 charger as it’s a much quicker charging system than the Level 2 chargers. They’re still good chargers, but a Level 3 charger will, depending on your vehicle and how quickly it can take the charge, it can get you up to about 80 per cent of a full charge in maybe as little as 20 minutes.”
