EV Realty and Ava Community Energy announce agreement to build the largest public EV charging hub in Oakland

33 fast-charging EV stalls will alleviate emissions in area with historically poor air quality and provide public charging investment in downtown Oakland

November 14, 2023 – San Francisco, CA – Ava Community Energy (“Ava”), the local energy provider for Alameda County and the City of Tracy, and EV Realty, Inc. (“EV Realty”), an EV infrastructure development platform purpose-built to maximize electric power availability for critical commercial fleets, today jointly announced the execution of a long-term services contract that will enable the construction of Oakland’s largest public EV fast-charging hub. The project will bring publicly accessible EV fast-charging to the city of Oakland, helping to reduce emissions in an area with poor air quality.

Supported by a ten-year services contract with Ava, EV Realty will develop, build, own, and operate a 33-stall EV charging project at the Oakland City Center Garage, centrally located to serve the adjacent disadvantaged community. This will be the largest public fast charging site in Oakland, increasing the overall amount of public fast charging infrastructure in the city by nearly 45 percent. EV Realty selected EV Connect, a leading EV charging management solutions provider owned by Schneider Electric, to construct and service the project under a multi-year agreement.

California state policy aims to promote equity in electrification by directing investments to support disadvantaged communities. However, challenges exist in the upfront cost of electric vehicles and access to at-home charging infrastructure, which are not always present in disadvantaged communities and areas with high density of multi-dwelling units (MDUs). This perpetuates the ‘chicken and egg’; issue of needing charging infrastructure where it’s used most, but also requiring more vehicles to justify more charging availability.

Ava is a not-for-profit public power agency that operates a Community Choice Energy program in Alameda County and the city of Tracy, with additional service extending to Stockton and Lathrop beginning in 2025. Ava currently serves 14 cities with 1.7 million residential and commercial customers. Ava provides clean power at competitive rates while reinvesting in its member communities and offering innovative energy programs.

“We’re looking forward to collaborating with EV Realty and EV Connect to bring meaningful environmental change to the residents of Oakland,” said Nick Chaset, CEO of Ava. “We believe this project creates a winning solution for local residents by bringing access to charging infrastructure to a part of our community that is often overlooked.”

EV Realty was selected through a competitive process to partner with Ava to bring the Oakland charging hub to life. The novel contract structure enables Ava to set prices ensuring utilization and benefits to the community, while EV Realty provides high-quality infrastructure that enables drivers to quickly and reliably charge their vehicles. The long-term contract structure provides project revenue certainty that supports private investment in much-needed public EV charging solutions.

“We’re proud to partner with Ava and EV Connect to bring accessible and cost-effective EV charging solutions to Ava’s customers in Oakland,” said Patrick Sullivan, CEO of EV Realty. “This project represents an innovative blueprint to scale EV charging infrastructure deployment and is another example of Ava’s long-term leadership in supporting California’s energy transition, first with solar and wind power purchases, and more recently with their focus on EV charging and distributed energy resources. Our collective hope is that this unique project structure provides a blueprint for how utilities and public power agencies can pull forward EV charging infrastructure deployment at scale, both here in California and across the U.S.”

Construction on the Oakland charging hub is expected to begin early next year; the project is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2024.

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Ava Community Energy (Ava), formerly East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), is the not-for-profit public power provider for more than 1.7 million residents and commercial customers in Alameda County and the City of Tracy, with service extending to the San Joaquin County cities of Stockton and Lathrop in 2025. As one of 25 community choice aggregation (CCA) programs operating in California, Ava is part of the movement to provide energy choice while expediting local and state-wide climate action goals. Ava is committed to creating a brighter future in our communities and beyond by providing clean power at competitive rates, reinvesting in our member communities, and developing programs that make it easy for customers to discover, try and adopt clean energy solutions. For more information about Ava Community Energy, visit avaenergy.org.

EV Realty develops, deploys, and owns charging infrastructure critical to electrifying commercial fleets in the U.S at scale. The company accelerates the adoption of large EV fleets by focusing on the fundamental constraint all electric fleets face: low-cost, reliable, and expandable access to grid-scale power. EV Realty is developing a network of grid-optimized, large-scale EV charging hubs for delivery, logistics, and services fleet customers. Our Powered Properties™ serve multiple commercial fleets in secure, high-power locations with guaranteed charging access and availability, and are located proximate to major logistics corridors within last-mile delivery/duty range of urban population centers. By aggregating multiple fleets with shared private infrastructure in grid-ready locations, EV Realty charging hubs reduce upfront and recurring costs for fleets, optimize charging times and provide high utilization rates. Learn more about EV Realty and how it is transforming fleet charging at www.evrealtyus.com.