SUMMERSIDE – The City of Summerside might be adding as many as 25 electric vehicle charging stations sometime in the near future.
The city is teaming up with a number of other Atlantic Canadian municipalities in an attempt to secure federal money for new Level 2 electric car charging stations.
All the communities in the group own their own electric utilities and are taking the approach of this being a shared pilot project to help them test the technology in their markets.
The Level 2 devices have some upgrades from the first generation of chargers that were on the market, including being able to directly charge users for the amount of power they use.
If successful, Natural Resources Canada would pick up half the cost of the total project. Summerside’s contribution would be $117,750 and would be paid for by Summerside Electric as a business expense, rather than as a regular city budget item.
Summerside already has about 30 older model electric vehicle charging stations distributed around the city. Most were installed around 2010. Some are attached to private businesses and others are on or near municipal or provincial facilities.
Summerside has agreed to be part of the initial group request for this project but this does not commit the city to actually making the purchase. That would come later and would require a full vote from council.
More to come.
