- April 18, 2024
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Locals and visitors may soon have new spots to charge their electric vehicles: At proposed charging stations near the county government's Government Services Building.
Florida Power & Light has approached the Flagler County government with a proposal to install a set of EV charging stations as part of a statewide pilot program, and will cover the $30,000-$50,000 installation cost if the county covers up to about $50 per month per station for electricity, County Administrator Jerry Cameron said at a Feb. 15 County Commission meeting.
"It is, I believe, an extraordinary opportunity," he said.
FPL is installing 600 such stations across the state, Cameron said.
The Palm Coast city government already has charging electric at its City Hall.
"It's a great benefit to employees and also a great benefit to the people that have to do business with the county," Cameron said. "It does really promote the switch to electric cars, and it's viewed by me as an opportunity."
"I think there's a tremendous benefit to having a wide range of charging stations."
— ANDY DANCE, Flagler County commissioner
The county's general services director will work with FPL on where, exactly, to place the stations — potentially on the road linking the Government Services Building to the county courthouse, Cameron said. He asked for the commission's consensus to move forward with an agreement with FPL.
Commissioner David Sullivan had concerns.
"Not to be a Debbie Downer here, but here's my problem," Sullivan said. "We're going to use taxpayer money to pay for people's gas, essentially — electricity. And as you said, it costs $50 a month ... so the people who have an electric car will get essentially free power to drive their car around."
"Well," Cameron replied, "If there's a public benefit to it, that is not an unusual — "
"But it's an individual benefit," Sullivan said. "The person who has the electric car gets fee power."
Cameron said the county gives out free masks and free hand sanitizer.
Sullivan asked why the stations couldn't simply be installed with credit card readers so people could pay for their own power.
"If we installed it ourself, we could do that," Cameron said, "and it would take us a long time at $50 per charging station to recoup what we'd lose."
Commissioner Andy Dance said that when he'd considered getting an electric vehicle himself, the downside was the proximity of charging stations, given the vehicles' limited range.
"I think there's a tremendous benefit to having a wide range of charging stations," Dance said. "I think the expansion of charging units at the various spots around the county is a benefit. We have so many people coming to the building for a wide variety of uses. It seems like a logical expansion."
Sullivan said that if the proposal is just an experimental project, it may be OK.
Cameron said it's an incubator: Once there are enough charging stations, more people will get electric cars, and that will spur private companies to build credit card-based charging stations.
Other commissioners favored the stations, and Cameron said he'll move forward with the FPL agreement.
