The City of Surrey is applying for a grant from the province’s to expand its public electric vehicle charging network.
During the April 15 meeting, council directed staff to submit the $502,411 grant application to the CleanBC Communities Fund (CCF) for the expansion.
Council also approved the allocation of $182,726 over a six-year period for the city’s portion of the project costs. It will be funding through the operating budget of the city’s parking utility.
According to a corporate report from the engineering department, the federal and provincial governments recently committed $63 million toward the CCF to “support green infrastructure projects across the province that expand access to clean energy transportation.”
For municipal governments, funding is available for up to 73.33 per cent of eligible project costs, with 40 per cent coming from the federal government and 33.33 per cent coming from the provincial government, the report reads.
The CCF funding, according to the engineering department, would help with infrastructure upgrades to transformers, electrical panels, and civil work at 10 civic facilities; installation of 40 dual-port L2 charging stations at 10 civic facilities; and building in future capacity to add up to 79 additional charging stations.
The report says the proposed upgrades would be phased in over a six-year period from 2020 to 2025.
Surrey’s public charging network, according to the report, was started in 2013 and has “steadily expanded through investments by the Surrey Parking Utility and funding partnerships with the Province of BC and National Resources Canada.”
Currently, the city has 32 stations with a total of 56 charging ports at 13 civic sites.
READ ALSO: Electric vehicles gaining traction in community and across B.C., April 13, 2018
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