Ithaca City staff: CCA local law filed with state; EV fleet-charging RFP yields three recommended vendors

Rebecca, a city staff member, told the Ithaca City Climate Action Commission that the city has completed a legal step needed to move its community choice aggregation (CCA) and distributed energy resource (DER) programs forward. "We had to repeal and replace the community choice aggregation local law, mostly due to an interpretation sort of issue, which passed unanimously … and has been filed with the Department of State," she said. That filing, she said, allows the city to "fully execut[e] the contracts and moving forward with both CCA and the distributed energy resources or DER program."

Rebecca also updated the commission on a separate procurement for electric-vehicle (EV) fleet charging. The city released an RFP for fleet charging on May 15 and, after an extension, closed the solicitation on June 17. Rebecca said the city received about "9 responses" and has recommended three firms to senior leadership — the controller, Department of Public Works, the director of planning and the city manager — for final selection. "We recommended the top 3 firms that we think would be a really good fit and that we believe to be within the budget," she said. Staff characterized the procurement as a "charging-as-a-service" model so the city would not own or maintain the hardware and to limit responsibility for costly electrical or transformer upgrades.

Commission member Nick asked whether the fleet RFP was tied to an earlier county or regional procurement; Rebecca answered it was separate but that the vendor who previously won the county public-charging RFP did respond and was among the top three recommendations. "We actually decided to go with the same provider. We went in with the county for public charging … but then … the scope was too far out from what the initial RFP was for public charging that we needed to release the second one," she said.

Rebecca described contract terms as being vendor-dependent: some providers offer shorter, more expensive contracts while lower-cost proposals may lock the city into longer terms. She said the proposals generally offered Level 2 charging for fleet applications, with limited Level 3 included for certain vehicle types.

Why it matters: The filed CCA local law clears a regulatory step for the city's electricity aggregation and distributed generation goals; the EV fleet procurement will shape the city's near-term ability to electrify municipal vehicles while managing installation and lifecycle costs. The final vendor choice now rests with senior leadership; the commission was given updates but did not vote on either item at this meeting.

What’s next: Staff said it will share outreach materials on CCA and the DER program, and senior leadership will decide which of the three recommended EV-charging firms to award the fleet contract.