BEVELRY HILLS—The city of Beverly Hills has announced that a new Electric Vehicle (EV) charging policy will become effective April 2, 2018, to prepare for the City’s EV charging infrastructure to accommodate the rising demand. According to a press release from the city of Beverly Hills, the new policy’s goal is efficient use of the Beverly Hills’ 35 publicly available EV charging stations. At present, there are 59 level 2 connections available in 14 city parking facilities and at Roxbury Park.

Key components of the EV Charging Policy include:

-implementing energy and station fees, in addition to facility parking fees

-prohibiting plug-in hybrid electric vehicles from charging

-implementing new enforcement regulation inherent in signage

Therese Kosterman, Public Information Manager for the city of Beverly Hills spoke to Canyon News via email about the new policy.

“Historically, we were receiving complaint calls related to the availability of stations for short term users. People expressed concerned over long-term and all-day parkers staying at charging stations even after their vehicles were fully charged. When these policies were adopted, people expressed that they believed they would be more likely to find an available charging station if all-day parkers were encouraged to move their vehicles once they completed charging,” said Kosterman.

When Canyon News asked what prompted the new fees, Kosterman replied: “The City received a grant for the original installation and subscription fees for these chargers. That grant ended and the City has been subsidizing these services since then. The fees are meant to off-set the costs associated with the service, maintenance and ongoing replacement/upgrades to the equipment. Additionally, rates were established to help create availability through encouraging turnover and more efficient use of the stations.”

The new rate structure includes an Energy Fee of $0.25/kilowatt-hour (kWh)—applicable only when the vehicle is actively charging—to recover the cost of providing electricity, as well as a Station Fee of $6/hour—applicable after the first two hours of establishing a connection, whether the vehicle is charging—to encourage turnover to make the station available for others. Kosterman indicated to Canyon News that based on a staff report, the city of Beverly Hills is expecting about $135,000 in revenues against an estimated $105,000 in expenses from the new fees in place. The remaining $30,000 is anticipated to accrue for the benefit of upgrades and replacement of the equipment.

To improve access for vehicles that are 100 percent reliant on electric power, the new policy reserves the city’s EV charging stations for battery-only electric vehicles. All other vehicles (including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) and any vehicle without an active charging session or not connected to a station could be subject to citation and/or towing at the owner’s expense. Drivers should review EV charging station signage for details about fees, rates and restrictions.

When asked about plans for more charging stations in the region, Kosterman replied, “We recently completed the upgrade of 14 charging stations, which included converting Level 1 connections to Level 2 connections. Since this upgrade we have changed a total of 20 connections from Level 1 and have updated all thirty five City charging stations to a newer model. The City intends to continue finding additional ways to support EV charging and will be exploring the opportunity to provide Level 3 charging opportunities.”

The Beverly Hills City Council received a presentation of the proposed EV Charging Policy, based on recommendations from the Traffic and Parking Commission, during the July 5, 2016 study session.

For more details, visit www.beverlyhills.org/ev or contact Public Works Customer Service at (310) 285-2467 or AskPw@beverlyhills.org.