As lockdown restrictions ease in the ACT, Fast Cities Australia will accelerate the rollout of its nine promised electric vehicle fast charger sites across the territory under an $8.8 million funding deal from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
The Sydney-based company secured the deal through round one of the agency's "future fuels fund", which aims to place 403 new chargers around the country.
The typical cost of a metro EV fastcharger, supplied and installed, is upwards of $200,000.
Five companies were successful in applying for funding and Fast Cities, whose charging network is branded as Evie, was the only successful one with reach into the ACT. Supporting funding to Fast Cities is from green energy investor St Baker Energy Innovation Fund.
The nine Evie Networks fastchargers for the ACT are among 158 planned by the company across eight regions, all with access to renewable energy. It has already taken over the old ActewAGL public sites in the ACT. These were installed as part of a pilot project in 2016 when very few other sites in Australia existed.
Confidence in the reliability of public recharging is identified as a major impediment to expanding EV sales, with Canberra sites often affected by regular power outages and malfunctions, parking space incursions and lengthy wait times for customers.
The increasing number of EVs on the road - Canberra is one of the fast-growing markets for electric vehicles in the country - is putting significant pressure on providers to step up.
As electric vehicle recharging is its core business, Evie Networks says it is better geared than ActewAGL to manage this operation.
Like many providers, Evie uses its own app-based system, which navigates customers to an available charge station, then calculates the recharging time and cost.
It also has a 24-7 call centre and a dedicated field team to repair rechargers when they break down, which electric vehicle owners have identified as a common issue.
Tesla has invested in six dedicated recharging stations - the company brands them as superchargers - in the ACT. This has been one of the key reasons why sales of the premium US all-electric cars have been so successful here.
Meanwhile, the ANU is progressing its laboratory based two-year program to demonstrate the feasibility of vehicle-to-grid services, which would allow EV batteries to provide power into the grid to avoid blackouts.
As the number of electric vehicles increases, their recharging demand poses a challenge to grid stability and frequency. However, the storage capacity of electric vehicles also is seen as a potential stabiliser by being able to discharge their power back into the grid.
