City hall’s much-touted electric vehicle charging station has been questioned by Innes Coun. Rainer Bloess, who says he’s concerned about the possible abuse of the service and what he considers low public usage.
Bloess’s questions about the charger produced a staff report that was presented at the Nov. 5 finance committee meeting. Also stated in the report was how Hydro Ottawa is conducting a pilot study to evaluate the charging technology of the electric vehicle (EV) charging station at city hall.
Hydro Ottawa has extended the study until April 2014, according to the report. It was originally scheduled to run for six months.
The EV charger is located in the parking lot of city hall. It resembles an air pump often seen at gas stations. Instead of hooking the cable onto a tire to fill it with air, the charging station plugs into the outlet on the front of the EV.
City hall’s EV charger is the only one that is free and for public use in Centretown so far. There is a two hour charging limit, according to the Canadian Automobiles Association website.
There are a number of chargers in Ottawa. The CAA website has a map of EV charger locations.
Bloess’s concerns were specifically about the charger at city hall.
“I only saw one vehicle parking there at a time, so that triggered curiosity,” says Bloess.
“My suspicion was that there was only one vehicle using the station and if it was there because one person asked for it, then it is not serving the purpose stated to justify the installation. Since I am unable to confirm any of this, it remains only a supposition on my part,” Bloess said.
In the past year, the report states that about 827 vehicles used the EV charger. The vehicles used 1861 kWh, or about $200 worth of electricity, according to the report. It says the usage is being monitored and the electrical costs assumed by Hydro Ottawa.
Bloess says he thinks this response is too unclear.
“I’m not sure if the whole story has come out in the response, but I think it’s as good an answer as we’re going to get at this point,” Bloess says. “There is no need for me to take further action.”
However, Mayor Jim Watson says he is quite happy with the use of the charging station so far.
“I was one of the people that worked to get it at city hall because we have to practice what we preach,” says Watson.
According to Owen Mahaffy, director of communications and public affairs at Hydro Ottawa, in order to accommodate EVs, they need to determine the adoption rates for these vehicles.
The study would be looking to determine, “where they would be located, when people are going to be making their purchase decisions, etc. So it’s getting that statistical data that helps drive decisions about where we’re going to put charging infrastructure, and when,” says Mahaffy.