Date: 2/23/2021
The council misses the charge at seven electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. Agawam asks users to pay $1 per kilowatt. The dollar represents $.60 per kilowatt for supply/delivery and $.40 per kilowatt for a Chargepoint subscription fee.
Currently, residents can pay $.21 per kilowatt to plug the car into a household outlet. The council must quickly acquire data it missed when it made the decision to charge $1. On step, the council needs to review the Chargepoint contract to determine options to reduce and/or eliminate the subscription fee from being passed to users in order to keep the charging stations relevant and affordable. In 2014, West Springfield installed the same Chargepoint system and it proved so costly that they yanked the Chargepoint charger.
The charging fee must be competitive. If Cumberland Farms can deliver a complete “fast” charge in an hour for $.35 per kilowatt and households can plug in for $.21 per kilowatt at home, the town must work to reduce its fee. Maximum use of the 7 EV charging stations will not be realized at the current pricing. The cost to charge is cheaper at home or Cumberland Farms, making $1 per kilowatt nonsensical. The benefit of having charging stations in Agawam will be lost.
Residents deserve to know how much of their tax dollars, beyond the DEP grants, went into installation and costs for these seven charging stations. How much of our tax dollars go to the maintenance, management and upkeep of these seven charging stations. While one abandoned charging station could be seen as a good faith effort to protect our environment, Agawam didn’t install one charging station. The council approved installing seven charging stations. The seven charging stations if unused will become an expensive stranded asset.
Agawam, this amounts to a wasted charge.
Susan Grossberg
Agawam
