Seattle City Light announced an initiative earlier this year to install public electric vehicle chargers curbside throughout the city, giving drivers without off-street parking a way to charge.
Now, the deadline to request one for your neighborhood is coming up.
Residents, property owners and managers and homeowner’s associations can request a Level 2 electric vehicle charger through Seattle City Light by Wednesday, Aug. 31, through an online form.
The service is intended to provide people in older homes, apartments and condominiums, who do not have access to a driveway, garage or parking lot, a way to charge an electric vehicle while parked on the street.
According to the utility, the service will help Seattle meet its goal to reduce transportation emissions 83% from 2008 levels by 2030.
Washington lawmakers set a goal this past legislative session to phase out sales of new internal combustion-powered cars by 2030. And this week, Gov. Jay Inslee said state would follow California’s lead and ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
Electric vehicle sales have jumped in recent years, but they’re only just over 1% of all cars on the road in Washington, according to the Department of Licensing. Washington ranks fourth overall in new registrations of electric vehicles.
The Seattle utility-run program will install Level 2 chargers, which typically provide an electric vehicle with 30 miles of range per hour of charge time. Often these chargers are used for multiple hours at a time like when a car is parked overnight or while the driver is working, according to City Light.
City Light plans to identify up to 30 locations with one or two chargers at each location, said spokesperson Jenn Strang. Two to three chargers will be installed in each City Council district and the first units will be installed in early 2023, she said.
Chargers will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, but ultimately the locations of charging stations will be up to the utility.
City Light will consider requests based on “predefined criteria” and choose locations that meet charger requirements. The utility will ask for input from neighboring property owners at each location and will not install a station if more than 50% of the neighboring property owners voice opposition.
Installation, set to occur early next year, will be free of cost. People using the chargers will need to pay a per kilowatt-hour fee to use the chargers.
So far City Light has received over 1,000 complete applications, Strang said.
For more information on how to request a charger and minimum requirements visit st.news/EVchargers.
Material from The Seattle Times archives is included in this report.
___
(c)2022 The Seattle Times
Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
Great. Now the police will (wait-they don’t want police anyway) be tied up dealing with disputes as to who got to the charging station first and how long they can stay. Thirty miles per hour of charging means a car could be hooked up in excess of 8 hours. I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunity for gun threats to be involved. This is all on the assumption that thieves don’t get there first and steal the power cords that they can sell for the valve of the wire. This is already happening in the San Francisco area. On any given day roughly 25% of charging stations are out of service
JUST wait till they start seeing brown and black outs because of this..