Feds celebrate free EV charging stations in Edmonton as step in energy transition

Edmonton residents and visitors who have gone electric now have more options to charge their vehicle around the city for free.

The federal government unveiled 24 new charging stations at eight different locations on Friday.

They were installed by EPCOR at a cost of $210,000, an investment the federal government considers critical to supporting the transition to greener power sources.

According to the speakers at Friday's news conference, personal and commercial vehicles produce more than a quarter of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.

"We're still going to need oil and gas to fuel our homes and do things in industry, but zero-electric vehicles are coming, and they're here and we want to be ready for them," federal minister and Edmonton MP Randy Boissonnault told CTV News Edmonton.

Most of the new stations feature Level 2 chargers, which can charge two vehicles at a time and provide approximately 40 kilometres of range for each hour of charging. These locations are at the Edmonton Expo Centre, Callingwood Twin Arena, Terwillegar Recreation Centre, Meadows Recreation Centre, Edmonton Convention Centre, and EPCOR's Hugh J Bolton building.

TELUS World of Science, where the announcement on Friday was made, and Edmonton's in-progress carbon-neutral Blatchford neighbourhood will feature Level 3 chargers. They are capable of providing 300 kilometres of range in one hour of charging, but can only charge one vehicle at a time. The charging station at TWOSE is already available for use. EPCOR said Blatchford's was "coming soon."

Twenty-four EV chargers at eight locations in Edmonton were put up by the federal government with EPCOR and the City of Edmonton's partnership. (Source: EPCOR)

"There is going to be a need to expand the grid, expand capacity in the system, and we're working tightly with the province and looking at what needs to happen, working with regulators and putting those plans together as we speak," EPCOR CEO and president Stuart Lee said.

"There is a lot of work. It's not going to happen overnight. It's probably a decade and we'll progressively move through that as we see more adoption of EVs."

The first public charging station by EPCOR was installed at the Kinsmen Sports Centre in 2019 as part of the company's partnership with the city called "Energizing Edmonton."

The federal government has a goal to put 50,000 electric vehicle charging stations across Canada. In the 2021 budget, it set aside $1 billion to do that, as well as provide rebates for new electric vehicle purchases and support businesses that were buying them.

The purchase incentive was also expanded to include more types of vehicles, including vans, trucks and SUVs.

EPCOR says a year-and-a-half away from reducing company emissions by 50 per cent.