On Jan. 25, representatives from businesses and municipalities from around Orlando gathered at City Hall to learn about the benefits of installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at their offices, stores, and other locations during the Ready for the Future: Workplace Charging 101 event.
Organized by the City of Orlando Office of Sustainability and Resilience, with OUC as a lead participant, the event featured presentations from industry experts, including OUC’s Pete Westlake, manager of new products and solutions, and Tom Lay, senior account representative.
Participants covered topics such as tax credits, funding sources, and the process and cost for installing a charging station in parking lots, garages, and other locations. The rate of EV adoption and the number of EVs on the road today also was shared, supporting the need for more charging options for local drivers. Currently, there are more than 24,000 EVs registered in the city and 36,000 in Orange County. The county leads the state in EVs per capita with more than 17 per 1,000 residents.
OUC subject matter experts shared the benefits of installing a commercial charging station, which includes increasing customer traffic to a business, as well as providing a place for employees to charge their own EVs alongside a business’ EV fleet. Businesses that install charging stations also have the opportunity to earn revenue from those charging stations.
“With EVs on the rise it is important to have fueling alternatives. About 80% of charging happens at home or at work. Therefore, all of our renting population who don’t have home options need to charge at OUC’s ReCharge Mobility Hub or at work. This event provided local businesses with needed information on how to make this happen,” said Westlake.
OUC’s Tom Lay, senior account representative, speaks at the Workplace Charging 101 event in Orlando City Hall.
OUC provides two different options for interested businesses:
With the Charge-It program, OUC installs, maintains and owns the charging station. Customers pay a fixed monthly fee. With the Own-It program, the customer pays for equipment and installation provided by OUC but then the customer owns the charging station and handles all maintenance and repairs. More information about each of these programs can be found here.
Eva Reyes, lighting-electrification manager, who oversees OUC’s commercial EV charging services, also attended. Reyes shared that OUC owns or maintains more than 300 charging stations.
“We have received 10 times more inquiries for charging services than the previous year,” noted Reyes.
Workplace Charging 101 event attendees board a LYMMO bus to visit OUC’s Robinson ReCharge Mobility Hub. OUC provides charging services to the LYMMO fleet.
A highlight of the event was a tour of OUC’s Robinson ReCharge Mobility Hub, equipped with six 240-kilowatt (kW) and 15 120kW Level 3-rated high-speed charging stations, which can fully charge an EV in about 30 minutes. OUC’s fleet F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck and Nissan Leaf electric compact car were stationed at the hub during the visit to showcase the variety of EVs available on the market today. Attendees traveled the charging location from Orlando City Hall via electric scooters or bikes or by LYMMO, the free downtown circulator featuring EV buses, for which OUC provided the charging stations.
The Robinson hub is part of OUC’s $45 million commitment to support the transition to electric transportation. A new charging center also is in development at the Orange County Convention Center, with an anticipated summer 2024 opening.
The event featured speakers from the City of Orlando and Electrification Coalition. Members of OUC’s New Products team were on hand to network and answer attendee questions, including Thom Nealssohn, director of new products and market development, Nick Smith, senior product analyst, Atheka Graham, product analyst, and Bynne Harris, product development coordinator.
Among the attendees were representatives from Orange County, the City of Orlando, the City of Winter Park, Hertz, Orlando Health, Tesla, Siemens AG, and other area government agencies, organizations, companies and nonprofits.
Pete Westlake, manager of new products and solutions, speaks to attendees of the Workplace Charging 101 event in front of one of 21 high-speed charging stations at OUC’s Robinson ReCharge Mobility Hub.