Pittsburgh unveils large electric vehicle charging depot for city fleet
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City officials on Thursday unveiled a new electric vehicle fleet charging depot at Pittsburgh’s Second Avenue Parking Plaza and announced plans to buy new electric recycling trucks.
The charging station, housed in the Pittsburgh Parking Authority’s lot in the city’s Bluff neighborhood, is the largest in Western Pennsylvania, according to city officials. It will allow the city to charge its electric vehicle fleet, which currently includes 26 fully electric vehicles.
The charging depot includes 15 dual-hose chargers, which can fully charge a vehicle in six to eight hours. The site — which will become the city’s main electric fleet charging depot — will be capable of charging 30 electric vehicles simultaneously.
Mayor Bill Peduto has earmarked part of the city’s American Rescue Plan dollars for purchasing an additional 70 electric vehicles to add to the city’s fleet over the next two years, along with additional charging sites.
This moves the city toward its climate goal of converting to a completely electric vehicle fleet by 2030.
“Electric transportation is here,” said Emily Phan-Gruber, associate manager of transportation electrification for Duquesne Light. “It is a viable and cost-effective solution.”
Duquesne Light partnered with the city on the initiative, and the electric charging stations are tied into their power grid.
Converting the city’s vehicle fleet to electric vehicles has been a project in the works since 2016, said Rebecca Kiernan, principal resilience planner with the city.
“Transportation emissions are the second leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in Pittsburgh, which makes up about 17 to 18% of the city’s emissions portfolio,” she said.
City officials said the 26 electric vehicles already in the fleet have saved the city more than $13,000 in fuel costs, making them cost-effective and environmentally-friendly.
“It’s imperative for our economy and for our health,” said Grant Ervin, chief resiliency officer for the city of Pittsburgh.
The new electric charging units will replace five solar charging units the city had previously used for their fleet at the Second Avenue lot. Those charging units will now be placed in sites throughout the city and made available for public use, Kiernan said — though officials have not yet decided where they will put them.
There are currently 37 spaces in Downtown parking garages where the public can charge electric vehicles. Those spots are “highly used on a daily basis,” said David Onorato, executive director of the Pittsburgh Parking Authority.
The new electric vehicle charging depot was funded by a $135,000 Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and a $189,400 Covid-19 Restart Grant from the Pennsylvania Energy Authority.
City officials on Thursday also announced that the city received a $2.8 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Targeted Airshed Grant to purchase five new electric recycling trucks. The grant will also fund the necessary charging infrastructure, which will be installed at the city’s environmental services headquarters.
This is in addition to four other electric recycling vehicles that were already proposed, bringing the grand total to nine electric recycling trucks coming to the city’s fleet.