COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, March 11, 2024

QUESTION NO. 37

QUESTION: Councillor F. Timmons

To ask the Chief Executive to report on Energy points for electric cars - report to include future plans for installing more electric energy points, plans to ensure that the present ones work, and how many are currently in the county.

REPLY:

Current publicly hosted EV charging portals indicate that there are circa 40 publicly available EV charge points in South Dublin at 17 locations. These are a mix of fast (50-150kW) charging and regular (22kW) charging points. Additional charging points are also available at privately operated facilities with restricted or curtailed services. As per the information on the council web site, members of the public are redirected to a third party website (www.zap-map.com), that allows the registering of charging points and provides real time information in relation to charger locations, charger numbers, charger type and their current use status. The charging points listed are provided by third parties, on private land, for public use. At this point in time, South Dublin County Council does not manage public EV charging points within the county.

Looking at future provision of EV charging infrastructure in public areas, South Dublin County Council, in collaboration with the other three Dublin LAs published the Dublin Regional EV Charging Strategy. The strategy will ensure a uniform approach is adopted in identifying and providing a range of types of EV charging services required across the County to keep up with demand up to 2030. SDCC and the three DLAs, working with Codema (the Dublin Energy Agency), have recently gone out to tender for the delivery of public EV charging equipment at publicly owned and accessible locations. SDCC has identified a number of suitable locations at our parks, offices, libraries and sports facilities, for phase one of this project.

The tender includes.

• Installation of underground ducting and groundworks, which once complete will remain in the ownership of the council.
• Installation and operation services by private sector operators to deliver overground EV charging equipment, electricity supply, and account management software for a fixed term of operation.

The complexity of developing new contracts and the financial implications for the operation of public EV charging in the public realm, has necessitated this tender to be a pilot scheme to test the proposed strategy. A 10-year concession framework agreement will be signed with the successful contractor, to allow for design, install and operate destination charge points across the entire county of Dublin.

The tendering process is at final assessment stage, with award of contract expected March 2024. The initial installations at 50 project locations (14 within SDCC Area), which were used for the tendering process, will be advanced and completed in the coming 12 months. Further sites will be developed and procured through the established agreement.