Title
Funding from Salt River Project to Install Electric Vehicle Charging at Parks and Libraries (Ordinance S-47539)
Description
Request to authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to perform electrical upgrades and install electric vehicle charging equipment at select City sites and enter into an agreement with Salt River Project for an incentive program to reimburse the City for a portion of the costs. Further request to authorize the City Treasurer to accept, and the City Controller to disburse, all funds related to this item. The total cost associated with this item is anticipated to be $224,000, with the City cost being $70,000 after receiving reimbursement of $154,000 from Salt River Project.
Additionally, request to authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to ratify and execute an amendment to operating and maintenance Agreement 153833 with Blink Network, LLC (Blink) to include the electric vehicle chargers installed through this initiative.
Report
Summary
Salt River Project (SRP) recently notified cities that it was making one-time increase in the incentives available for customers to install electric vehicle charging equipment at their sites with the caveat that the installations needed to be completed and all paperwork submitted by the end of June 2021.
Office of Sustainability staff worked with City departments to identify possible employee, fleet and publicly-accessible sites with the expectation that the SRP incentive of $11,000 for each dual port charging station would cover the cost of the installation. However, costs proved to be significantly higher than anticipated.
Of the 21 locations initially evaluated, the publicly-accessible sites at City parks and libraries had the lowest cost potential as they could take advantage of Blink's no cost public charging equipment and incorporate the operations and maintenance into the City's existing Blink contract. Locations at City parks will be presented to the Parks and Recreation Board for approval, prior to installation.
The Job Order Contracting (JOC) contractor, LLR Electric Inc., submitted the detailed cost estimates for upgrading electrical panels, trenching to parking locations and installing a concrete pad, for 11 dual-port charging stations at an average cost of approximately $17,600 - above the $11,000 incentive initially offered by SRP. The City asked SRP if a higher incentive was possible, and SRP offered an incentive of $14,000 per station for 11 charging locations for a total of $154,000.
The Office of Sustainability will fund costs not covered by the SRP incentive including staff time to manage the implementation of the charging equipment at City facilities and to cover additional costs by the JOC contractor assigned to perform the electrical upgrades and install the charging infrastructure.
Concurrence/Previous Council Action
The City Council approved Citywide General Electrical JOC Services Agreement 150132 (Ordinance S-45742) on June 5, 2019.
The Parks and Recreation Board will discuss and take action on this item on May 27, 2021.
Financial Impact
The total amount requested for authorization is up to $224,000 with $154,000 offered as an incentive by SRP and up to $70,000 from the Office of Sustainability Energy Efficiency Fund. No other department funds are committed as part of this proposal, however, departments may elect to paint the parking stalls to bring greater attention to the electric vehicle charging. Blink will provide signage and reimburse the City for any electricity used by the stations on an ongoing basis. The Blink agreement includes a revenue-share component to help cover the cost of Public Works monitoring of the electricity billing data - although the net revenue is anticipated to be nominal.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Managers Karen Peters, Mario Paniagua, Inger Erickson and John Chan, the Office of Sustainability, the Parks and Recreation, Library and Public Works departments, and the City Engineer.