Title
Adopt a Resolution to Approve and Authorize the Execution of a License Agreement with East Bay Community Energy Authority, a Joint Power Authority, for Installing, Operating, and Maintaining Electric Vehicle Fast Charging Stations at the City of San Leandro’s Main Library
Staffreport
COUNCIL PRIORITIES
• Infrastructure
• Sustainability & Resiliency
• Community & Business Development
SUMMARY
The proposed license agreement will allow East Bay Community Energy Authority (EBCE), a Joint Powers Authority, to install, operate, and maintain Direct Current Fast Chargers (DCFC) to fuel electric vehicles (EV) at the San Leandro Main Library. As shown in Attachment B (Exhibit A), the project would facilitate installation of 24 EV-only charging stalls in the existing parking lot that would be available to the public. EBCE will pay for the installation, operation, and maintenance of the stations, and end users will be charged directly for the electricity they utilize to charge their vehicles. The proposed agreement further allows EBCE to operate these EV fast chargers and associated electrical equipment on City property for a 15 year period.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff recommends the City Council adopt the attached resolution approving and authorizing the City Manager to execute a license agreement with East Bay Community Energy, a Joint Powers Authority, for installing, operating, and maintaining electric vehicle fast chargers at the San Leandro Main Library, at no cost to the City.
BACKGROUND
Vehicle electrification is an important strategy for air quality improvement and is identified as a priority action item in San Leandro’s adopted Climate Action Plan (CAP). Cars and trucks burning gasoline and diesel fuels presently create most of San Leandro’s local greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), as well as other air pollutants. To reduce the pollution impacts of vehicles, the CAP notes that it is incumbent upon the City to assist as many of San Leandro’s residents as possible to move around without the use of fossil-fuel burning vehicles. Active transportation (walking and biking) and public transportation are top priorities. For those who must use vehicles, electrification of such vehicles is a key element in the City’s ongoing efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
Electric vehicles (EVs) also reduce lifetime utilization expenses for drivers, contributing to increased financial security and boosting local energy independence. To encourage consumer adoption of EV’s within the City of San Leandro, the CAP notes that EV charging infrastructure should be strategically deployed to ensure that all residents, including renters, have equitable access to the benefits of EVs in the near term. The deployment of new charging infrastructure in San Leandro will tap into EBCE’s clean electric grid, leveraging carbon free renewable energy as the transportation fuel to generate improved public health outcomes.
The City of San Leandro is a member agency of EBCE, a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) formed in 2016 pursuant to California Government Code Section 6500 et seq., to become the default Load Serving Entity (or public power provider) in Alameda County. EBCE currently serves the County of Alameda, and each of the following cities incorporated therein: Albany, Berkeley, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Oakland, Piedmont, Pleasanton, San Leandro, Tracy (San Joaquin County), and Union City. In total, EBCE meets the electricity needs of over 60,000 commercial and industrial accounts and offers service to all residential accounts, representing 1.7 million people. In 2022 the City of Stockton (San Joaquin County) also joined EBCE’s JPA.
In addition to serving as the public power provider, EBCE is tasked with development and management of energy-related climate change programs that help local government JPA members, like the City of San Leandro, achieve their greenhouse gas reduction goals faster. Through its Local Development Business Plan, EBCE is strategically developing distributed energy resource solutions, including deploying a network of EV fast charging infrastructure, that will provide net benefits to EBCE’s customers and local government JPA member agencies.
Vehicle electrification and development of associated charging infrastructure are the subject of state, regional, and local goals for climate action and air quality improvement. In 2020, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-79-20, which mandates 100 percent of new in-state light duty passenger vehicle sales to be zero-emission by 2035. Preceding N-79-20, Governor Brown’s Executive Order B-48-18 established a target of 5 million zero emission vehicles statewide by 2030 and directed California to install 250,000 EV chargers, including 10,000 fast chargers, to support 1.5 million EVs statewide by 2025.
There are more than 1.1 million light-duty passenger cars and trucks registered to drivers in Alameda County. Plug-in electric vehicles account for just 5 percent of this total vehicle registration portfolio (approximately 57,000 EVs). To achieve the state’s zero-emission vehicle adoption goals, this figure will need to increase to approximately 360,000 light-duty EVs by 2030. To ensure sustained growth in the EV market, the California Energy Commission (CEC) has estimated that 645 to 1,740 publicly available EV fast chargers are needed throughout Alameda County to ensure driver confidence in convenient charging infrastructure. According to the information provided on the CEC’s website, there are under 400 EV fast chargers in Alameda County today. Furthermore, the gap in access to charging infrastructure is not experienced equally among residents of the County.
EBCE has conducted a detailed analysis to understand home charging access and identified critical disparities that will hinder widespread EV adoption and, therefore, the ability to achieve California’s zero-emission vehicle goals. Using data derived from the Department of Motor Vehicles, the County Assessor’s office, and online real estate websites, EBCE’s analysis identified the following information:
• 47% of all residents in Alameda County are renters
• 90% of all multi-family housing properties (5+ units) are over 50 years old
• To date there has been a de minimis level of electric vehicle adoption among multi-family housing residents
Due to the vintage of multi-family housing properties, electrical capacity upgrades will be needed across the County’s building portfolio to support electric vehicle charging. These upgrades are the property owner’s responsibility to fund and coordinate (i.e. not the tenants’ responsibility), representing a key barrier to deploying lower-level charging to enable at-home charging for these residents. These upgrades will not occur quickly at the scale needed to meet the state’s goals.
A not-for-profit public agency like EBCE has a critical role to play in addressing the installation of EV charging infrastructure to meet the needs of residents. EBCE can deliver clean electricity as a transportation fuel at a lower cost to customers and is well positioned to invest in a network of public EV fast chargers that is informed by local data and input from its JPA members like the City.
To that end, EBCE is partnering with the City to install, maintain, and operate EV fast charging stations on municipal property that are available to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Siting EBCE’s EV fast chargers at municipal facilities, like the parking lot at the Main Library, will result in infrastructure that is convenient, accessible, reliable, highly utilized, and equitable for all users, including renters in San Leandro’s multi-family housing developments. This public-public partnership approach will ensure a wide spectrum of San Leandro’s residents can join and benefit from the transition to EVs and will support the City’s efforts to achieve its climate action goals. The 2017 greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory showed that transportation emissions account for 60% of San Leandro’s community emissions, so EV infrastructure deployment will help to reduce these emissions.
The 24 EV-fast chargers that would be installed through this proposed project will provide much more capacity than standard Level 2 chargers, enabling drivers to refuel in under an hour. Electrical equipment for the EV fast chargers will be co-located in the Main Library’s surface parking lot. This equipment includes a new PG&E transformer and electrical switchgear and panels. EBCE will coordinate the installation of the transformer with PG&E and EBCE will have their own meter that serves the EV fast chargers and will be billed directly for all electricity costs, with end users paying for the electricity used at the charging stations via credit card or an electronic mobile application. All EV fast chargers will be powered by EBCE’s Renewable 100 electricity product. In exchange for this service, the City is allowing EBCE to occupy City property at no cost.
Once operational, the project will become a resource for residents and visitors alike and a major step in achieving San Leandro’s Climate Action Plan goals.
Analysis
In collaboration with City staff, EBCE scoped the Project to deploy twelve dual-port 150 kilowatt (kW) DCFCs in 24 EV only charging stalls at the San Leandro Main Library parking lot. Each DCFC will be capable of powering two charging stalls. The capacity of the DCFC equipment may change in the final Project design (higher capacity, not lower). At least two, and possibly more, of the charging stalls will be accessible to accommodate vehicles used by those with disabilities, in conformance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Locating EBCE EV fast charging infrastructure at San Leandro’s Main Library also makes strategic sense based on the following statistics:
● Extremely low overlap in EV adoption by renters in multifamily housing based on Department of Motor Vehicle registration data.
● There are 2,096 multi-family housing properties within a 5-mile radius of the project site.
● The project will expand access to an estimated 27,248 total multi-family housing units, more than an estimated 5,002 of which are affordable units and specifically serve low-income renters.
● >25% of the multi-family properties within a 5-mile radius of the San Leandro Main Library have a parking ratio of less than 1 space per unit.
● The San Leandro Main Library is in a low-income census tract. There are also ~50 other low-income census tracts within a 5-mile radius.
● The Project site is 1.2 miles from Interstate 580 and 1.4 miles from Interstate 880.
● The Project site is ~0.5 mile from a BART station.
● Walkable driver amenities include pharmacies, entertainment, banks, other retail and restaurants.
● A new specialty grocery store is planned nearby, along with nearly 200 units of new housing at 1188 East 14th Street.
● The Main Library parking lot hosts a farmers’ market, which will not impact accessibility of the fast chargers and will serve as a community outreach and engagement opportunity.
● The parking lot is accessible 24/7 and there is no fee to park in the lot.
Additionally, EV’s can be a powerful tool for social equity. They reduce pollution associated with private automobile use and reduce lifetime driving expenses through lowered fueling and maintenance costs. Moreover, the “secondary market” of used EV’s is growing rapidly. This market will make EV purchases more accessible to drivers - but only if those residents are confident that they can reliably charge their vehicles. Public charging amenities are therefore needed, particularly in areas of San Leandro that presently have limited access to EV charging infrastructure.
Current Agency Policies
• Climate Action Plan Policy: Transportation Electrification (TE-2): EV Charging Stations
Permits and/or Variances Granted
The Project is currently in the design engineering phase. EBCE will follow all of the City’s Building & Safety permit requirements associated with the construction of the electric vehicle fast charging infrastructure.
Environmental Review
The California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") and the CEQA Guidelines exempt specific types of projects from environmental review. The following CEQA exemptions apply to this Project: Section 15183. (projects consistent with a Community Plan, General Plan, or Zoning), and Section 15061(b)(3) (no significant effect on the environment).
Summary of Public Outreach Efforts
Once installed, EBCE and the City will advertise the availability of the EV fast chargers through numerous communication channels and events including EV101 workshops at the Main Library. These events will connect attendees to resources to help with buying or leasing an EV. EBCE will also inform the community through its communication channels including direct emails to electricity customers (e.g., multifamily residents, single family residents, multi-family property owners and nearby employers). EBCE will also coordinate with the California Air Resources Board’s Clean Cars for All program on outreach to income eligible residents about grants to help them transition to a new or second life EV.
Legal Analysis
EBCE’s Charging Station License Agreement was reviewed and approved as to form by the City Attorney’s Office.
Financial Impacts
None. This license agreement with EBCE will facilitate EV charging access points to the public at no direct cost to the City. Through the project, EBCE will fund the installation and ongoing operation and maintenance of the electric vehicle fast charging infrastructure. The City will provide EBCE access to the parking lot of the Main Library to deploy the electric vehicle fast chargers at no cost for a term of 15 years. Staff time is needed to coordinate the agreement with EBCE, collaborate with EBCE on the Project design, and for approval of the construction work required to install the electric vehicle charging stations. This work can be executed using existing staff resources and through existing standard permitting application processes.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: Resolution
Attachment B: EBCE Charging Station Site License Agreement
Attachment C: EBCE CEC REACH Grant Letter of Commitment - City of San Leandro
PREPARED BY: Hoi-Fei Mok, Sustainability Manager, City Manager’s Office