The recommendation came the same day U.S. President Joe Biden set a target that half of all new cars sold by 2030 must be electric.
Michael Prousa, a project engineer with the city’s Transportation, Engineering and Development department, said questions were raised by staff about the need for a fee as they prepared to replace charging stations in two lots.
Prousa said from 2015 through 2017, the electric vehicle charging stations averaged $56.08 per month in utility charges and generated $133 per month in revenue.
While the city installed credit card processors to handle the transactions, he said the devices often required maintenance and were often out of order.
City staff determined the utility cost is not significant and suggested the fee be dropped.
The move also is supported by the Downtown Naperville Alliance, Prousa said.
Besides recouping electric costs, Prousa said fees can discourage people from parking in the same spot for too long.
But he said that has not been the case in Naperville or other similar municipalities the staff contacted as part of their research.
“We did not have too many issues of cars parking there past the time limit,” Prousa said.
Police officers also can issue warnings or tickets to any vehicle parked beyond its time limit, he added.
Naperville obtained three electric vehicle charging stations in 2011 as part of the Smart Grid Initiative.
Two were installed at the Electric Service Center so city staff could test and monitor electric vehicle charging on the city’s electric utility system and as well as to examine the associated billing in electric vehicle utility rates.
The third unit was installed in the parking lot at Van Buren Avenue and Main Street.
In 2013 the city installed a fourth charger in the Van Buren parking deck and replaced the unit in the lot across the street.
A year later, the City Council approved a usage fee to offset the electric cost.
In recent years, the charging stations have been out of order, which is why the city is replacing them.
Transportation board member Scott Hurley questioned the city’s motivation behind offering charging stations and whether Naperville should have more.
The city requires homeowners to apply for a permit before installing electric vehicle charging stations in the garages, and Prousa said the Electric Department reports that more than 250 Naperville households are equipped.
“We recognize that that’s a good number of cars that are charging at home and live in Naperville,” Prousa said. “We definitely project a high usage of these charging stations.”
He said with more electric vehicles on the road here and elsewhere, the city wants to provide spots for those vehicles to charge.
Transportation board President Michael Melaniphy said Naperville needs to look at not just other cities in the region but other countries that are going through these challenges.
“We’re seeing that stacking up waiting to charge becomes more of a challenge. Charging can take 45 minutes, can take longer, depending on your vehicle,” he said.
Melaniphy said how the infrastructure ― roads, bridges and signals other transportation ― is funded primarily by gasoline taxes needs to be reassessed as more electric vehicles are purchased.
“Electrically charged vehicles are not paying user taxes because they’re not using the fuel,” he said.
While removing any electric user fee makes sense, Melaniphy said moving forward the city needs take a broader look.
Naperville resident Bruce Jones, who addressed the board, said the next areas where the city should place more focus on setting up charging stations is at multifamily housing complexes and businesses and at locations near busy roadways.
“People have to come off the highways and spend some time and spend some money while their cars and charging up,” said Jones, who is active with the Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force and the Fox Valley Electric Auto Association.
Jones said electric vehicles are definitely the future.
“We just want Naperville to be prepared,” he said. “The more prepared we are, the more attractive we will be to other folks when they come into town.”
President Biden doubled down this week on getting more battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles on the road.
Executives from the three largest U.S. auto companies joined the president at the White House on Thursday pledging 40-50% of their new car sales would be electric by the end of the decade.
© 2021 the Naperville Sun (Naperville, Ill.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
