Oneonta Installs Electric Car Charging Station

As part of an initiative to be designated as a Clean Energy Community, the City of Oneonta has installed a ChargePoint Level 2 electric vehicle (EV) charging station in the Dietz Street parking lot.  The Clean Energy Communities Program is a NYSERDA initiative to reward communities for accomplishing high-impact actions toward becoming more energy efficient as a whole.

Second Ward Council Member Melissa Nicosia said, “Over the last two years, there was a joint effort among City departments and the Council to takes steps to earn the Clean Energy Communities designation.  I am proud to have been a part of being able to complete this initiative. Clean Energy can only benefit our community in the future.”

To earn the designation of a “Clean Energy Community”, four of ten high-impact actions must be completed. The City of Oneonta has completed three of these actions prior to the EV Charging Station, including: Benchmarking (Council adopted a policy of tracking municipal energy usage in order to limit excessive use where and when able), Unified Solar Permit (Council passed legislation to adopt the NYS Unified Solar Permit to reduce costs and delays for solar projects in the City), and  Energy Code Enforcement Training (training of code compliance personnel in best practices of energy code enforcement).

The installation of the EV charging station marks the completion of the fourth high-impact action, Clean Fleets. The City of Oneonta is now eligible to receive future grant funding to implement
additional actions. The EV charging station is a pier-mounted console which will allow EV drivers to recharge their batteries over time. The charging station is equipped with two ports, allowing two vehicles to charge simultaneously. Initially, the City will not apply a fee for drivers to use this EV charging station.  However, drivers must be a member of the ChargePoint network. Two parking spaces, adjacent to the  charging station in the Dietz Street Parking Lot, will be reserved for electric vehicles only