Viktor Musil
A contract that would commission open EV charging station at a variety of city facilities will be taken up by the San Diego City Council in late April. Councilmembers are unsure whether the revenue generated will adequately cover reimbursement costs.
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The proposed contract, which the City Council is scheduled to consider in late April, requires no honest city funding and requires that the contractor pay for the use of city property.
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The city could owe up to $60 million in reimbursement costs for the electrical infrastructure the contractor installs, depending on the outcomes of a complex revenue-sharing agreement that would last for ten years.
City officials estimate that the contract’s revenue, which will be deposited in a kind of lock-box account to prevent it from being used, will cover between 75 and 85 percent of the city’s debt.
The remainder will be covered by state and national funding for charging stations for electric vehicles.
Members of the city council have expressed concern about that aspect of the agreement. Before the council hearing, they requested that the city’s impartial budget analyst complete a thorough analysis of the proposal.
“This is a very big project”, Councilmember Marni von Wilpert said during a March 14 meeting of the council’s Environment Committee. “How do we get to $60 million in 10 years”?
Jordan More, an IBA analyst, said his initial review indicates the proposed contract is a great opportunity, but one that raises some questions.
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He applauded the idea to lock the money so that it can only be used to pay for the contract’s staff efforts. He als claimed that some other technologies would be the main concern when energy cars would be replaced.
“Over the next ten years, the greatest risk I saw is simply that electric vehicles are no longer the best option, I thought.” More said.
San Diego experienced this issue some years ago when a limited number of bikes from DecoBike’s unique agreement to install and run bike-sharing stations was abandoned. All of DecoBike’s corrals have since been removed.
Without receiving a recommendation, the Environment Committee made the decision to forward the proposed contract to the entire council. And they stated that the discussion agenda must be placed on the consent calendar, never the consent calendar, where it might receive less attention.
Alyssa Muto, director of the city’s Sustainability and Mobility Department, said the proposed contract would solve some problems for the city. She said the deal is based on months of analysis, including meeting with different cities and various contractors.
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Within two years, Real Upside would be constitutionally required to install chargers at every city building, beach, and recreation center, as well as at every other city building, within five.
According to city officials, they have already determined the best locations for chargers after conducting picture analysis of numerous city lots.
The agreement would give San Diego access to the local network of charging stations necessary to facilitate residents ‘ ownership of electric vehicles, especially those who reside in apartments or other places where it is not possible to use a car charger at home.
According to San Diego’s revised climate action plan, which was released in 2022, a quarter of the miles driven by the city must be zero-emission by 2035 and a quarter of those must be.
The city must have an all-electric fleet of light-duty vehicles by 2035, and the plan also specifies that 75 % of its heavy-duty vehicles must be electric by that time. According to officials, these objectives are elusive because there isn’t a regional charging network.
Just 150 of the city’s 3,300 light-duty vehicles are energy. The second heavy- duty electric vehicles, two street sweepers and a firetruck, are slated to arrive this year.
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Because every city neighborhood has a library or a recreation center, according to city officials, the proposed contract would ensure charging stations were installed in low-income neighborhoods.
Officials claimed they chose to have the contract cover the whole city rather than just listing city lots for bids because they feared no contractors would submit bids for lots in low-income areas.
A member of the city’s climate equity working group, Kelly Lyndon, said she would prefer the contract to have fewer restrictions on how many chargers Real Upside installs in each location.
Could they place one at the Malcolm X Library and the other at the La Jolla library and call it done? Lyndon asked the Environment Committee.
Because it includes sturdy incentives for True Upside, city officials predicted that the agreement would assuredly lead to a very trustworthy network of chargers.
If some chargers aren’t working, the company’s profit would decline, and the proposed contract would allow the city to impose fines if monthly usage reports reveal that specific chargers aren’t using. Additionally, problems that people can report using the city’s Get It Done! system would be increased by useless chargers. Tipster app for fixing for the contractor.
Real Upside would give the city a flat rate per charger and a three-monthly revenue increase. The starting point for charging would be 50 cents per kilowatt-hour, and it couldn’t go up without city approval.
True Upside couldn’t use any proprietary ports, so all drivers would have to be able to use each charger.
The new agreement would allow the city to get rid of the largely abandoned Blink and OpConnect chargers that are located at 14 different locations throughout the city.
