Portland will be able to offer more places to charge electric vehicles within the next year and a half.
The City Council this week unanimously approved a proposal from EVgo, a company that provides electric vehicle charging services across the country, to install more than 40 charging ports across the city, the Portland Press Herald reported.
The company will install up to 44 Level-2 charging stations, as well as four DC fast chargers, across the city over the next 18 months. The plan will install at least 12 of the Level 2 charging stations, and all four of the DC chargers, by December 2022.
Level-2 chargers take six or more hours to fully charge a vehicle, while the DC fast chargers can add 300 miles of range in about 30 minutes, City Councilors told the Press Herald.
The contract between Portland and EVgo will last for at least 10 years, and over the next decade, the company will maintain the charging stations, according to the Press Herald. EVgo will also offer a 20 percent discount for city-owned vehicles that use its chargers.
Upon installation, the fees collected for electric charging will go to EVgo for at least 5 years. After 5 years, the city will have the option to buy out the Level-2 charging stations in order to set rates and collect revenue from them.
Initially, EVgo will pay $4,400 monthly in access fees to host the DC fast charging stations which will reduce gradually as more charging stations are added to the network. This will allow Portland to expand its electric vehicle charging network without cost to the city, the Press Herald reported.
Currently the plan calls for four Level-2 charging stations to be located at the Reiche School parking lot on Brackett Street, four to be in the East End School parking lot on North Street and four in the Deering Oaks parking lot on State Street, the Portland newspaper reported. The charging stations located on school property will be available for public use when schools are not in session.
Two of the DC fast charging stations are slated for the parking lot at Spring and High streets, and the other two are expected to be installed on Commercial Street near Brown’s Wharf.
Currently, Portland has more than 250 electric vehicle charging stations.