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Date: 4/4/2022
BELCHERTOWN – With work underway by the Energy and Sustainability Committee to investigate adding public access electric vehicle charging stations in town, the Belchertown Select Board received a project update on the project during its March 28 meeting.
Committee member Michael Potishnak started the presentation by discussing the committee’s current proposal for a charging station.
“What’s being proposed is two dual port Level 2 chargers that can charge four vehicles at the same time. That’s more than your 110 volts, it’s 220 or 208 and charges much faster,” he said. “The location we are talking about is the parking lot near the town hall and the library, coordinating that with the upgrade of the parking lot.”
When deciding upon the parking lot as a location, Potishnak said the committee narrowed it down because it was readily available in an area with points of interest, it is a well-lit and safe area at night and installation would be simpler with the new parking lot coming in.
Department of Public Works Director Steve Williams further explained the rationale behind the proposed location.
“The reason we picked that area was so that the power supply can come through the Finnerty House, and it is between the town hall and the library, so it made sense to have that area so people going to either facility would be able to use it and still have a comfortable walk to the building,” he said.
Potishnak said the committee already spoke to several different equipment suppliers and installers.
“We received pricing from three equipment suppliers, and we rejected two thus far so we may be reviewing more suppliers down the road. We have had onsite visits with two installers, we are going to be doing more and are going to get at least three price quotes from prospective installers,” he said.
In terms of narrowing the charging equipment, Potishnak said the criteria came down to durability, reliability, reasonable pricing, flexible installation and user-friendly support options.
Along with installers and equipment suppliers, Potishnak said the committee also set strict criteria for software providers including being user-friendly, having good references, low cost and secure payment capabilities. At the time of the meeting, he said the committee evaluated four software companies and said that one stood out, two were rejected due to poor references and the final one was overpriced, but the committee would continue to evaluate more.
For funding, committee member Patricia Krebs said the town can apply for a grant from the Massachusetts Electric Vehicle Incentive Program (MassEVIP), which would be valued at $50,000 per address for public access charging.
“You can either use the Mass EVIP grant alone, which will cover installation and equipment, or you can combine it with a National Grid grant and then the MassEVIP covers installation while the National Grid would cover equipment,” she said.
Krebs said the MassEVIP grant cannot be combined with Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources or Green Communities grants. Because the project qualifies for new construction with the parking lot, she said the project would need to be finished within 24 months to satisfy the grant application.
“Our goal is to be revenue neutral for the town, the grant should cover all or most of the initial costs, warranties and insurance are all consideration along with unexpected repair costs,” she said.
Krebs added the grant from MassEVIP is revolving so there is no deadline for the application.
Once settled, Potishnak said users would be charged at the same kilowatt per hour rate as the town, but the town could implement fees if cars are left idle for too long.
Williams spoke highly of the committee’s work on the project.
“Working with this group, I really appreciate their outreach to the DPW (Department of Public Works), they have been great to work with and have allowed a lot of questions from me during their planning process. They have considered a variety of different options and it has been very impressive to watch,” he said.
While no motion was required, the board gave the committee its blessing to continue investigating public access charging stations.
During the meeting, the board also discussed moving forward with a municipal energy aggregator but agreed to delay the decision to the next meeting when the full board is in attendance. The board also discussed changes to the recall bylaw, including changing reasoning for recalls and the number of signatures required for a recall petition, but will discuss those changes with a lawyer at its next meeting as well.
The Belchertown Select Board next met on April 4 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the April 14 edition of The Reminder.