Narberth committee recommends raising public EV charger price, asks council to set final rate

The Narberth Borough Public Health and Safety Committee voted to recommend that Borough Council increase the fee charged at public EV chargers and asked staff to refine the final rate before the council meeting.

Committee chair said the committee added the item to the agenda and reviewed a memo from the Environmental Advisory Council recommending a rate increase to better match Narberth’s electricity costs. Lee, a borough staff member, summarized the analysis: “Currently, the rate is $0.15 per kilowatt-hour,” Lee said, “and using two months of PICO bills we calculated an effective cost nearer to 18¢ per kilowatt-hour.”

The recommendation forwarded to council was for an increase in the public charging rate consistent with the EAC memo; the committee did not set the final price and asked staff to gather additional billing months and estimate administrative costs before the council business meeting. The committee recorded that the two sample months used were mid-September to mid-November and that those months yielded per-kilowatt-hour figures of about 17.9¢ and 17.3¢; staff said they would recheck with an additional month of bills.

Committee members and staff raised possible additional charges to cover administrative and maintenance time. Public works staff Jeff described maintenance as minimal so far: “When we need to contact Flow for any issue, it’s a pretty seamless…quick email, and they tap in and take care of it,” Jeff said. One committee member suggested adding a small margin (staff discussed 20¢ as an upper, illustrative figure) to account for staff time and policing costs, but members agreed the exact number should be set by full council after further review.

The committee also discussed charger utilization and operational impacts. Police and staff reported rising use across Narberth’s chargers and two recent occasions when a borough police vehicle could not charge because the public charger was in use. Staff said a grant application could cover installation of a Level 3 charger in the public works lot (estimated at roughly $4,000 in the memo) but that the borough had not yet received confirmation. A police charging contingency — such as time reservations or an in-lot charger — was raised as a near-term staffing concern.

Votes at a glance: the committee approved adding the EV pricing recommendation to its agenda and then passed a motion recommending that full council increase the public EV charging rate consistent with the EAC memo; the committee did not itself set a final price. The committee also approved the December 13, 2024 minutes earlier in the meeting.

Why it matters: Narberth’s public chargers are seeing growing use, and the committee said aligning the public rate with actual electricity costs will reduce operating losses and help plan for maintenance and public-safety charging needs. The committee emphasized that final authority to set rates rests with Borough Council and that staff would return with additional billing data and administrative-cost estimates.

What’s next: Staff will collect another month of PICO bills, estimate staff/policing time costs, and prepare a proposed rate for the upcoming council business meeting.