Portland General Electric outlines pole-mounted EV charging pilot for Oregon City; no city funding required

Portland General Electric told the Oregon City Commission that it plans to install Level 2 electric vehicle (EV) chargers mounted to utility poles in neighborhoods identified as underserved and that the company will cover equipment, installation and ongoing operations if locations meet PGE’s technical and equity criteria.

PGE program manager Adam Reese said the work is part of a statewide pilot that must complete new installations by the end of 2025; after that, PGE’s funding shifts to maintenance-only. Reese said PGE now seeks location approvals and a permit to work in the right-of-way rather than signed contracts with cities, which the company found slowed prior rollouts in other jurisdictions. Josh Wheeler, assistant city engineer, introduced the item and said city staff have been coordinating with PGE on site selection and permitting.

Reese said the pilot targets households in census tracts meeting the criteria of House Bill 2165 — examples include tracts with high multifamily housing share, high renter populations, low income, higher proportions of BIPOC residents, rural/frontier or tribal areas. PGE also layers internal customer data on existing EV ownership when proposing sites. Reese said the company vetted multiple candidate poles and that Oregon City could decline any proposed location.

PGE showed photos of installed pole chargers in other cities and described operations: a user scans a QR code with a smartphone, a 25-foot cord is lowered, the vehicle charges and the cord retracts when finished. PGE identified the charger equipment manufacturer as EVSE LLC (also marketed as Control Module Inc.) and said those units are widely deployed elsewhere.

On pricing and access, Reese said PGE charges customers for energy (currently about 12¢ per kWh) and that the company added an idle fee for vehicles left connected after charging: a 10-minute grace period followed by a 10¢ per minute idle fee. He also described a low-income discount tied to PGE’s income-qualified discount program that reduces charging costs by 20% for eligible customers. PGE said it monitors uptime, performs quarterly site visits and has a contractor with a two-day service-level agreement for diagnostics and repairs.

Commissioners and neighborhood representatives raised concerns about parking displacement, visibility of the chargers, signage, whether chargers would be reserved for EVs only, and visual impacts — especially in the McLaughlin conservation district and Berkeley Hills. Reese said PGE typically posts informational placards with contact information and that the company is improving signage (Spanish translations, PGE stickers) and outreach within a quarter-mile radius of each installation. He said the devices themselves are not designed to reserve or legally restrict a parking space; local parking regulations would govern any restriction and the city would decide if it wants to add restrictive signage or enforcement.

City staff reported daytime inspections of several candidate locations and said they would keep working with PGE on sites that appear workable. Commissioners asked PGE to present detailed data on why each Oregon City location meets the pilot’s equity criteria and suggested PGE attend neighborhood meetings; Reese agreed to additional neighborhood outreach and to provide the data behind each recommended site.

No formal city approval or funding commitment was required at the work session; staff said PGE will proceed with permitting and outreach only if the city gives site approval. Commissioners expressed general interest in the pilot while asking for follow-up on community notification, visual impact in conservation zones, enforcement options for blocked chargers, and the precise datasets PGE used to declare a location “underserved.”

Provenance: see transcript excerpts below for the presentation and Q&A.