GILL — After only earning $626 in revenue over five years, the town is suspending its electric vehicle charging station at the Riverside Municipal Building.
After weighing the revenue generated since the two-plug, Level 2 charging station became operational in February 2022, against the $740 yearly cost of a ChargePoint subscription to continue to collect revenue, the Selectboard voted to shut down the charging station.
“Five years ago, it was a good idea,” Selectboard Clerk John Ward said. “We’ll try to figure out how to make it a good idea again.”
Town Administrator Ray Purington explained that the charging station, which costs users 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, was installed through a combination of a Green Communities grant and funding from Eversource, and the town made a five-year commitment to Eversource to keep the station operational. The town pays $35 a month to Eversource for the charging station, and between the monthly cost and the expense of a ChargePoint subscription, Purington said he can’t “recommend in good conscience” keeping it open.
“I think it’s a luxury that we can’t afford,” he said.
Ward and Selectboard member Greg Snedeker both expressed how this location along the French King Highway (Route 2) is not a frequent stopping point, given other nearby locations where people can spend time while their vehicles are charging.
Roughly a mile away in Turners Falls, there are charging stations located at Unity Park off of First Street, at the Second Street municipal parking lot and on Sixth Street. Additional charging stations are also available across Franklin County, compared to a few years ago when only a handful existed.
Additionally, the chargers are now considered to be on the slower side of charging capabilities, with an estimate by ChargePoint putting a full charge time at three and a half hours for an 80-mile electric vehicle battery. A DC fast charger, by comparison, can charge an 80-mile battery in a half an hour, but these chargers cost more money and require more elaborate electric infrastructure to operate, Snedeker and Ward mentioned.
Ward pointed out that there are neighbors in the area around the charging station that do use the chargers, and wondered if there could still be charging available in an emergency, but as Purington pointed out from the perspective of a taxpayer, gas stations aren’t free in an emergency, and if there is an emergency, “I call AAA.”
“AAA can’t really come with a 5-gallon can of electrons,” Ward quipped.
After further discussion of the feasibility of possibly moving the charger to another location in town, or finding opportunities for further vehicle chargers as other infrastructure projects progress, the decision was made to just pull the plug on the station.
“We’ll give it a little memorial service,” Snedeker joked, “say a few words before we throw the breaker.”
