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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> NORTH CAROLINA <br /> Asset Management Services <br /> Date: September 13th, 2019 <br /> To: Board of Orange County Commissioners <br /> From: Brennan Bouma, Sustainability Coordinator <br /> Steven Arndt, Director Asset Management Services <br /> RE: Request for Information on the Orange County Electric Vehicle Charging Stations <br /> At their regular meeting on September 3rd, 2019,the Board of Orange County Commissioners approved the <br /> acceptance of grant funding in part to replace aging electric vehicle charging stations. During the meeting, <br /> Commissioner Marcoplos asked for more information on the shortcomings of the existing County charging <br /> stations that will be replaced, how the planned new ones are an improvement, and information on the benefits <br /> and location the new solar charging station.The following was prepared by staff to address their questions. <br /> On June 10, 2019, Orange County was awarded $147,247 in grant funding from the North Carolina Clean Energy <br /> Technology Center(NC CETC) under the Clean Fuel Advanced Technology(CFAT) 2019 Round 2 grant program. <br /> This grant program is sponsored by the NC Department of Transportation and funded with federal Congestion <br /> Mitigation Air Quality funds.These funds were awarded to support the County's efforts to replace aging electric <br /> vehicle charging stations, purchase a solar-powered charging station with a battery backup, and to lease an <br /> electric vehicle. <br /> Electric Vehicle Charging Station Replacements: <br /> In 2011, Orange County was awarded grant funding to install a network of 16 electric vehicle charging stations in <br /> 4 locations across the County.The equipment chosen was manufactured by EATON, which remains a well- <br /> established manufacturer of electrical components and who was an early leader in supplying electric vehicle <br /> charging stations. <br /> Components began to wear out on some of our most-used charging stations in 2015, and they were able to be <br /> fixed by EATON and returned to service.An EATON representative at the time said that commercial electric <br /> vehicle charging stations have an expected service life of 5 years. Not long after those initial repairs, EATON <br /> announced that they would no longer be selling charging stations, supplying parts, or making repairs to their <br /> electric vehicle charging equipment.Therefore, since 2016 when charging stations in popular locations needed <br /> repair, their components were borrowed from historically less-popular locations such as the Durham Tech Park <br /> and Ride lot.This allowed the popular stations to continue functioning, but temporarily disabled a station at <br /> Durham Tech Park and Ride. In 2018,the County budgeted funds to replace non-functional charging station <br /> equipment and County staff replaced the 4 most used charging stations in the network, those at the Skills <br /> Development Center, with Clipper Creek brand charging stations.This brand has a good reputation for simplicity <br /> and durability, they are used throughout the country in what is now a far more mature industry, and these <br /> chargers are listed on the state purchasing contract. The new chargers were also equipped with the ability to <br /> communicate their usage data to a central system once connections are available from the building. <br /> This replacement allowed for the still-functioning components of the old chargers to be returned to the charging <br /> stations from which they'd been borrowed and for a short time all of the charging stations were functional. <br /> P.O. Box 8181 * Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278 <br /> Telephone:919 245-2625 <br /> Fax:919-644-3001 <br />