Pickerington officials will look for additional opportunities to install electric-vehicle charging stations after unveiling its first stations in Olde Pickerington Village.
At the beginning of July, four electric vehicle, or EV, charging stations were installed at a city-owned parking lot at 89 N. Center St., known as the parking lot for the Olde Pickerington Village Farmers Market.
Officials said the new stations are used frequently and has led them to look into adding stations elsewhere in the community.
“Currently, we are exploring a grant program through an electric utility that could place a Level 3 fast charger in the northern part of the city,” City Manager Greg Butcher said. “There are several constraints we are working through to make that happen.
“The city will keep an eye out for further grant opportunities as the electric vehicles and the technology to charge them continues to evolve.”
In addition to potentially adding at least one other station, Butcher said the city also is evaluating whether it will invest in EVs for its own fleet. The city does not own any EVs.
“While there are no immediate plans to do so, we will continue to evaluate this concept,” he said.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center, Level 1 charging stations are 120 volts and can power between two and five miles of range per hour of charging.
Level 2, the AFDC states, can charge 10-20 miles of range per hour of charging.
The AFDC doesn’t provide data for Level 3 stations, but states that “DC Fast Charging” stations range from 280-480 volts and provide 60-80 miles of range per 20 minutes of charge.
A July 1 report by Forbes.com stated that Level 3 stations are 400-900 volts and provide three to 20 miles of range per minute.
The city’s charging station is comprised of four 240-volt Level 2 chargers. The total cost was $45,313. The city’s share was $15,313, and the remainder was funded by an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency grant.
Butcher said the station was installed in Olde Pickerington Village, in part, because the city owned the lot and the lot is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
City officials are hopeful that it helps attract people to the downtown to visit the city and support Olde Pickerington Village businesses.
“This allows electric vehicle users to visit Olde Village businesses, events and the farmers market and have a place to charge their electric vehicles,” he said. “At this early stage of consumer adoption, there is a need for more public charging stations.
“The availability of the grant covering most of the cost is a low-risk way to install this new technology.”
Currently, there is no fee to use the city’s charging station. However, Butcher said, the station’s are equipped with a ChargePoint interface that would enable the city to charge users in the future.
“The city’s chargers are equipped with the ChargePoint interface (chargepoint.com/drivers),” he said. “Users of the chargers will need to register an account with ChargePoint to arrange payment methods.
“The city has the ability to set the pricing, time limits and variations of both to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. For example, we want the chargers used on regular basis by many different users, but we do not want users to leave their vehicles on the charger all day.”
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