Councils across Victoria are working together to understand their role in providing or facilitating public electric vehicle charging infrastructure, particularly in regional and rural areas where top-up and destination charging is important. Many councils have already begun to install and encourage EV charging points in their communities, without assurance of coordination at the regional scale. This project seeks to address this challenge by aligning council initiatives and investments to ensure the best strategic outcome for communities and EV drivers.
EAGA has partnered with the Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance to undertake a feasibility study on behalf of 55 councils and the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia. The project is funded through council contributions and additional funding from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP). The feasibility enables councils to understand the opportunities for a joint investment program that could see a dense and coordinated network of EV charging across the state. This would be a first in the country to have a state with a high density of public chargers in regional and rural areas.
The scope of study includes:
- Providing guidance to councils on the factors relevant to the placement of the various types of charging stations and costing for alternative charge station network options, including considerations of technical effectiveness, impact on the local economy, attractiveness to users and community desire to participate.
- Understanding the role of local government in charging infrastructure including options for different ownership models and options to coordinate the maintenance and management of the state-wide network once installed.
- Working with project partners to develop communication resources to promote the EV network to end users