The Village of Burns Lake’s EV charging stations have been disconnected and will only be available once the paving and construction work of the downtown parking lot is completed.
The charging station that was installed in 2006, was made free-to-use last year, to encourage travellers and tourists to stop by and recharge their vehicles. However, when travellers stopped by this year, they reported to the PlugShare site that there was no EV charging station despite a sign indicating otherwise.
When Lakes District News asked the village about the status of the EV charging stations, village’s Chief Administrative Officer Sheryl Worthing wrote back saying, “There are no Village of Burns Lake EV charging stations working in Burns Lake. We disconnected the Level 2 EV charging station due to the reconstruction the downtown parking lot.”
Worthing also said that once the project is completed, the station, which was disconnected earlier this spring, in March, will be reconnected in a new location, at the south end of the parking lot. The parking lot is expected to be completed in “the next few weeks” however, she said that this would entirely depend on the weather and paving company’s schedule.
The village has also been hoping to get a Level 3 charging station in the downtown parking lot. BC Hydro and the village entered an agreement to install a Level 3 EV charging station. However, due to Covid restrictions, there has been a significant delay in installation of the station.
“Due to BC Hydro’s restrictions regarding Covid-19 we are uncertain when the Level 3 charging station will be installed and operational,” said Worthing.
A single Level 3 machine costs $200,000 and under the agreement BC Hydro would be contributing $50,000 while the rest will come from federal grants. The charging station itself would not cost the village however, usage of the station would not be free, unlike the Level 2 charging station.
“Typically Level 3 Stations are a user pay system as they are considerably faster,” said Worthing.
An upgrade to the existing Level 2 charging station has also been on the village’s agenda for a while however, there is no date yet on when this would actually happen. The village is hoping that ChangeNorth will receive a grant funding that would help upgrade the existing Level 2 station.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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