Charged Up: Westerville provides more locations for EV owners to plug in
Westerville has the power for electric-vehicle owners to charge up at 16 city-owned charging ports at four locations across the city.
Chris Monacelli, Westerville's electric utility manager, said the newest stations were available beginning March 16 at the Westerville Community Center, 350 N. Cleveland Ave., and Westerville Sports Complex, 325 N. Cleveland Ave.
“Our goal is to provide options for existing EV drivers and help reduce concerns about the availability of public charging for anyone considering purchasing an EV,” he said.
A charging port was also added at the parking lot between the Westerville Public Library and Hanby Park, with access from Library Road, on Jan. 21.
Other charging stations are available at the parking lot behind Westerville City Hall with access from West College Avenue, a small parking lot behind the city building at 64 E. Walnut St. and Lake Shore Cryotronics, Inc., 575 McCorkle Blvd.
Through Westerville’s PowerUp rebate program, Monacelli said there are an additional 18 ports installed at Westerville businesses.
“We also offer a residential program in which enrolled customers get a discount on their electricity for charging their EV's at night,” he said. “We currently have around 40 enrollees.”
Monacelli said the number and location of stations have been driven by the city because there haven't been any state or federal requirements yet.
"The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency announced that there was grant funding available for the installation of EV charging stations about a year ago," he said.
“The timing of the grant coincided perfectly with Westerville Electric Division’s plans to begin installing Level 2 charging stations in the city,” Monacelli added.
“Because Westerville is in both Franklin and Delaware County, we were able to secure grant funding at four locations all on city-owned property at highly used locations.”
They add between 12 and 60 miles to your battery each hour.
Monacelli said the chargers cost users $0.08 per kWh to charge a car (processed through the ChargePoint mobile application), enough to cover the cost of electricity and any ongoing costs associated with the chargers.
Westerville’s Brady Berlin, leader of Ohio's Tesla Owners Club, has tried out the city’s public EV chargers, and he’s enrolled in the residential program as well.
He said a couple of things that stood out about the new chargers were that they were super easy to use and they worked at their advertised speed – that wasn’t always a guarantee in the early days of public EV chargers.
“Also, they are the new contactless type,” Berlin said. “I just have to swipe my phone over the front screen and it automatically knows my ChargePoint account and my car. The plug then unlocks and I can pop it in the charge port; super smooth. I do like the ChargePoint network because it's pretty affordable and the app handles all the payment so I don't need a credit card or wallet.”
He said his only bad experiences with ChargePoint has been at Easton, where they are not very reliable.
“But I've used them in Colorado for our long trips with the Tesla and they were just as easy as the Westerville units,” he said.
Berlin said he has access to charging at home like most EV owners do.
“The convenience of having it at a public area isn’t a necessity. People in an apartment may have a more challenging situation," he said.
Berlin added that arguments could be made for those coming from out of town to Westerville for special events that (the chargers) may help them decide whether or not to take their EV car.
“I would call that a win there,” Berlin said.
For more about the PowerUp residential program, visit online at westerville.org/services/electric/programs/powerup-residential-ev-off-peak-charging-program.
A commercial rebate program is also available. More information can be found online at www.westerville.org/services/electric/programs/electric-vehicle-charging-program.
mkuhlman@thisweeknews.com
@ThisWeekMarla
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Charged Up: City provides more locations for EV owners to plug in
