Council authorizes SCE’S Program

Program is for transit bus electrification

The Porterville City Council gave authorization Tuesday to participate in Southern California Edison’s (SCE’S) Charge Ready Program for Transit Bus Electrification.

The council specifically authorized city staff to submit an application to participate in SCE’S Charge Ready Program, and also approved a draft resolution to further its commitment to a zero-emission transit fleet.

To meet California’s goal to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution, the state will have to significantly increase the electrification of cars, buses, medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks and industrial vehicles and equipment, said Mike Reed, the city’s public works director. To support California’s zeroemission vision, Reed said SCE recommends a Clean Power and Electrification Pathway that puts more than 7 million electric vehicles and more than 200,000 electric trucks and buses on California’s roads and in its freight yards.

Reed said SCE’S 2017 transportation plan and 2018 priority pilot programs address early steps to increase electric vehicle adoption.

Reed said one of the 2018 priority pilot projects is transit bus electrification, where SCE will fund the infrastructure cost of installing up to 20 electric charge ports at bus yards. Reed said SCE efforts will focus on systems in underserved communities that are disproportionately impacted by pollution from buses. The transit bus electrification pilot project, Reed said, will be under SCE’S Charge Ready Program.

Under the program, Reed said SCE will provide a turnkey approach to deploying transit bus charging installation with a focus on reducing costs and complexity. To do so, he said SCE will install and maintain the complete electric infrastructure serving charging stations at no cost to the city.

Reed said SCE will qualify charging station vendors based on several key technical requirements, and noted that SCE will coordinate installation with the vendor the city selects to complete deployment.

“Finally, SCE will provide a rebate to offset some or all the costs for the charging stations and their installations,” Reed said.

As a condition to participate in the Charge Ready Program, Reed said the city must grant SCE an easement in the property where the charging station infrastructure will be deployed. He said operating costs, including equipment repairs and maintenance, EV charging network subscription, and electricity will be the city's responsibility.

In 2017, Reed said the city was selected to participate in SCE'S Charge Ready Program that deployed three public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at the Centennial parking lot. He said the project highlighted the successful partnership with SCE to deploy the city's first EV charging stations for public use.

Until the announcement of the pilot project, Reed said staff had planned to submit an application to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to fund the electric transit bus charging station infrastructure, but noted that now staff is recommending to first apply to participate in SCE'S Charge Ready Program.

If selected to participate in SCE'S Charge Ready Program, Reed said the city will benefit in SCE'S turnkey approach that focuses on

reducing costs and complexity, and maximize the use of local partnerships and local funding. He said, however, that staff is still planning to submit an FTA application for the bus canopies and renewable

energy component of the electric transit bus project.

The next regular city council meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5, in the council chambers at Porterville's City Hall.