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Council approves purchase of transformer for Tesla Supercharger; Tesla to reimburse $31,860 cost
Summary
Council approved purchasing a transformer to serve a Tesla Supercharger site at a city location. Staff said Tesla requested a separate transformer and will reimburse the city for the $31,860 cost; staff followed purchasing policy and solicited three quotes.
City staff (Speaker 2) briefed the council on a request from Tesla to install superchargers at a city site and the need for a dedicated transformer. The staff recommendation was to procure the transformer, which staff said would be reimbursed by Tesla. The stated purchase amount in the presentation was $31,860.
Staff said they followed city purchasing policy, solicited three quotes and selected the vendor with the shortest lead time. Council members asked whether the city would bear other upgrade costs for future electric-vehicle (EV) chargers; staff said fees and initial connection costs had been collected and staff are exploring options to recoup transformer upgrade costs for future commercial customers.
The council moved to approve the purchase and the item carried with affirmative votes; staff plans to update policy on how transformer and connection costs will be recovered going forward.
Next steps: staff will complete the purchase and process Tesla’s reimbursement, and will review policy to determine whether initial upgrade costs should be charged to future commercial customers.
