The County of Sonoma launches new EV charging price plan for public charge stations

by David Worthington, Fleet Manager, County of Sonoma

Sonoma County has lead the way in developing electric vehicle (EV) charging station infrastructure to support the adoption and growth of EV’s.  The first publicly accessible charging stations were installed in 2009 and now there are over 250 stations with 363 charging ports throughout the County.  The release of the “County of Sonoma Electric Vehicle Charging Station Program and Installation Guidelines” in 2011 helped to encourage other jurisdictions to become engaged in creating a network of charging stations through the Bay Area.  Research in 2016 found there to be 2,532 publicly accessible charging points located throughout the Bay Area.

On May 17th, 2016 the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved the implementation of a pricing plan for the County owned publicly available electric vehicle charging stations.

There are multiple objectives of the pricing plan including: (1) to create an incentive that favors longer-distance EV drivers who rely on public charging opportunities and minimize charging by EV drivers who do not require charging station access as part of their daily commute; (2) to add a cost to create prioritized access that helps to ensure that stations are better reserved for EV drivers who depend on them instead of drivers looking for a short “opportunity charge” who then leave their car sitting at the station longer than necessary, blocking access for others; (3) to add a time limit for charging to create more equal access for EV drivers by increasing utilization and opportunity for access; (4) to recover cost of electricity, administration, maintenance, and operation of the network; and (5) to generate revenue towards expansion of the program and infrastructure.

The proposed pricing plan includes financial components and time limitations. The pricing plan consists of a $2.00 connection charge as well as a usage charge of $1.00 per hour up to four hours.  This model charges the station user for energy consumed during their charging session as well as infrastructure administration and support costs.  Current publicly available charging stations include signage limiting station occupancy to four hours.  Violators will be charged $10.00/hour for each hour of connection beyond the time limit allowed for at that charging station and may also be subject to a charging station citation.

The County was an early adopter of this technology and the implementation of the pricing plan was delayed while hardware and software technical challenges were resolved. 

The implementation of the pricing plan will occur on Friday September 1st, 2017 after 5pm at the following publicly available EV charging station locations:

Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building

205 W. 1st Street

Cloverdale, CA 95425

County Administration Building/Board of Supervisors

575 Administration Drive

Santa Rosa, CA 95403

County Facility – La Plaza

2300 County Center Drive

Santa Rosa, CA 95403

County Leased Facility

1202 Apollo Way

Santa Rosa, CA 95407

Doran Beach Regional Park

201 Doran Beach Road

Bodega Bay, CA 94923

Guerneville Veterans Memorial Building

Church Street and 1st Street

Guerneville, CA 95446

Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building

1351 Maple Avenue

Santa Rosa, CA 95404

Laminated signs have been installed on each of these charging stations communicating the implementation of the pricing plan on September 1st, 2017 after 5pm.  Each of the stations have also been programmed with a revolving text message on the display screen to inform users of the September 1st implementation date.

Questions about the implementation of the pricing plan should be addressed to:

David Worthington

Fleet Manager

County of Sonoma, Fleet Operations

Office 707-565-2809

• Author
• Recent Posts

Guest Blogger

Latest posts by Guest Blogger (see all)

• Expansion of fossil-fuel vehicle phase-outs moves world one step closer to a climate-safe future  - April 22, 2020
• Germany goes greener with $95 billion push for train over plane - January 14, 2020
• EU sets out trillion euro plan to avert ‘climate crash’ - January 13, 2020