Charge Ready Has Installed Its ‘First School District’ EV Charging Stations


01/25/2018

The El Monte District introduces EV charging stations in schools to battle air pollution and to become a “good steward of the community”.


Dailycsr.com – 25 January 2018 – “El Monte Union High School District” is made up of “five schools that are situated “less than 20 miles away from the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains”. When the days are clear, the staffs as well as the students get a “clear view of the local mountains”. However, mostly the view gets covered up by smog and the “mountains appear hazy”.
 
The Energy Manager at the El Monte District, Shawn Cun gives much importance to the need of finding a solution to “improve air quality”. It is the way, as per Cun, to becoming “a good steward of the community”. This is where Cun thought of electric vehicles as they were “becoming more popular” while helping in the reduction of air pollution. As a result, the El Monte Union established a partnership with Southern California Edison for installing “39 electric vehicle charging stations” that would be distributed “among its five schools”, namely “El Monte High, Rosemead High, Arroyo High, Mountain View High and South El Monte High”.
 
Under the “Charge Ready” pilot programme of SCE, the above mentioned charging stations were fitted, as SCE supplied the “electrical infrastructure” along with “rebates to help the district pay for them”. In Cun’s words:
“The installation of the charging stations has created a lot of excitement from our students, teachers and school staff. They are already in high demand. On top of being able to provide our students, teachers and staff the opportunity to charge their EVs, having the charging stations also exposes EVs to more individuals in our community, including many who might not have had that exposure before.”
 
Currently, these charging stations only cater to the teachers, staffs and students, while Cun has hopes of making them “available” for future public use. El Monte Union turns out to be the “first school district” that has installed “EV charging stations” under the programme of Charge Ready, while these schools are not the only ones to take “advantage” of the programme. Similarly others like “Los Angeles Unified School District, California State University, Fullerton, University of California, Irvine and the California State University Office of the Chancellor” are now in “various stages” of electric vehicle stations’ charging station installation.
 
Product Development & Division Management’s Principle Manager at SCE, Katie Sloan, overseeing the programme, said:
“Putting charging stations at these schools is good for the students and teachers at these schools as well as the community. The lack of clean, healthy air can be a real problem in many communities and electrifying transportation is a great way to reduce air pollution.”
 
Furthermore, Edison International reporting to Ethical Performance, added:
“Through the Charge Ready program, more than 1,000 EV charging stations will be available to drivers across SCE’s service area. EV drivers will be able to plug in and charge at public parking lots, workplaces, hospitals, destination centers, and apartment and condominium complexes.”
 
The “Clean Fuel Rewards Program” of SCE is trying to make electrical vehicles “more affordable”. Under the said programme, the customers of SCE get a “$450 incentive” applicable to “new, used and leased vehicles”. The unique thing about this programme is that even “second and third owners of a vehicle are also eligible for the payment”.
 
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com