Surrey city council has approved new user fees for charging electric vehicles in this city.
It gave third-reading to the bylaw Monday night.
City staff recommended two tiers of charges, for Level 2 and Level 3 service. Level 2 features a 240-volt system to fully charge a vehicle in four to six hours (roughly 30 kilometres of range per hour) while Level 3, also know as DC fast charging, uses a 400-volt to 800-volt system to charge a vehicle to 80 per cent in under an hour for a range of roughly 300 kilometres per hour.
A corporate report, authored by Rob Costanzo, Surrey’s general manager of corporate services, and Scott Neuman, general manager of engineering, notes that by year’s end the city will have 91 EV charger spaces across 17 of its civic facilities.
“Generally looking at the map, it looked like we’re a little light in West Newton and Panorama areas for charging stations and maybe even sort of the Grandview and Cloverdale area too,” Coun. Brenda Locke said.
Neuman replied that the city has focused on its civic facilities. “There are other facilities in White Rock, for example, or neighbouring municipalities which spread the demand,” he said, “but we will look and consider alternate government sectors and/or hospitals and/or schools etcetera to see how we can provide a global better service to the community.”
Electric vehicle ownership, the report indicates, has been growing “exponentially, roughly doubling each year since 2016.”
“The trend in EV adoption is being driven by increasing affordability, greater efficiency, lower cost to operate versus gasoline or diesel vehicles, supportive government policies and incentives, increased consumer familiarity, and a rapidly accelerating shift by auto manufacturers from traditional fuel vehicles to EV platforms,” Costanzo and Neuman write.
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They say Surrey will own the largest public EV charging network in the province. City staff is recommended that council approve a fee structure that will see user fees for the city-owned Level 2 chargers set at $2 per hour for the first hour of stay in the EV charging space, escalating to $5 per hour for subsequent hours to encourage turnover and maximize access to the charging stations.
Also, staff recommends the rate for using Level 3/DC Fast Charging Stations “be equivalent to or slightly below those used by neighbouring communities and BC Hydro,” with the user fee set at 20 cents per minute – roughly $12 an hour – for the first hour rising to 40 cents per minute – roughly $24 per hour – beyond that, “as a means of ensuring turnover.”
“One hour of connection to a Level 3 charger is sufficient to charge the majority of batteries, enabling more than 300 kilometres of distance for most vehicles,” the report notes.
This is how the fees will work out, if the report’s recommendations are approved by council. The Level 2 charger at 6651 148 Street will be free between 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, and the first hour for registered visitors to City Hall will be free between 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, then $5 for each hour or portion of after that.
For all other locations, it will be $2 for the first hour or portion increasing to $5 per each hour or portion of following that, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
For Level 3/DC fast charging, the recommended fee is 20 cents a minute for the first hour rising to 40 cents a minute after that.
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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