Agenda 10-01-19 Item 12-7 - Information Item - Request for Information on the Orange County Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

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2 Currently, 3 of the 6 charging stations at Durham Tech Park and Ride have stopped working and cannot be repaired. As a final note, some current electric vehicle models are incompatible with these older EATON stations.There is a necessary communication that occurs between charging stations and an electric vehicle to ensure a safe connection is made.These communication standards have been improved since 2011 with the unfortunate side- effect of creating incompatibilities between older charging stations and new electric vehicles.This means that even when the old charging stations are working,they may not be able to serve their purpose for current electric vehicles. With the availability of grant funding this year, staff applied to replace the remaining 12 stations with Clipper Creek stations which will be warrantied to provide years of good service, equipped to allow for communication of usage data, and serviceable in the event that they need repair. Solar Electric Vehicle Charging Station: These grant funds will also support Orange County's purchase of a standalone solar electric vehicle charging station which will allow 100 miles of total charging per day on renewable solar energy without connecting to the grid.This 3-port charging station is equipped with a large battery that stores the energy from the station's solar panels and then delivers it to vehicles when charging.The charging station comes pre-assembled on a truck and rests on top of a single parking space, so no ground-disturbance is required and the station can be placed in any sunny parking lot. As written into the grant application's scope of work,the solar electric vehicle charging station will be located at the bus lot at Orange County Public Transportation (600 Hwy NC 86 North) and its purpose would be to charge the 3 plug-in hybrid ADA accessible minivans which will form the backbone of their new mobility-on-demand program.This will fully charge the batteries of those vehicles and enable them to travel a total of 33 miles each before switching over to operating as a gasoline-electric hybrid. Given the ability to deploy solar electric charging with no site preparation,this standalone off-grid charging station would allow this new program to launch as soon as the vehicles are ready. During most days,the solar battery will recharge before the chargers are needed again by the transit vans, and Orange County expects this additional capacity to be used by visitors to the facilities. Visitor electric vehicle charging needs for this location are expected to be lower than other County electric vehicle charging station locations due to the lower number of County residents who are directly served by the nearby County Motor Pool facility and Orange County Public Transportation Office.The additional capacity in the recharging solar batteries should therefore be sufficient for the needs of the mobility-on-demand program. An alternative location for the solar charging station could be proposed to grant administrators as long as the charger remained publicly accessible. Locating it elsewhere would require identifying 3 additional charging stations for the electric vans of the County's upcoming mobility-on-demand program as it is currently designed.