Streetside Charging

The city of St. Gallen is conducting a pilot project on neighborhood charging at three locations. Not everyone has the opportunity to charge their car at home. Especially in cities, many people do not have their own parking space, the property owner or owners refuse to install a charging station, or the costs and effort involved are not worth it. In such situations, curbside charging in residential neighborhoods offers a good alternative. Here, electric cars can be parked and charged at the same time.

What does “Streetside Charging” mean?

“Streetside Charging” has become established in Switzerland as a term for charging stations in public parking lots, primarily in residential areas. Typically, the local energy provider installs AC charging stations in blue-zone parking lots. The target audience consists primarily of local residents. However, since these charging stations are located on public property, visitors can also use the charging infrastructure.

Charging stations located next to roadside parking spots facilitate the transition to electric cars

Cars will continue to be a part of urban mobility in the future, but they must become more environmentally friendly. Electric mobility is currently the energy solution being relied upon to reduce the negative impact of automobile traffic. The challenge is to adapt the infrastructure accordingly.

In St. Gallen, the electrification of transportation is being addressed proactively.“From our perspective, it’s clear that a charging station has to be in place first in order to encourage more people to switch to electric cars,” says Vera Tettamanti, project manager for street-side charging at St. Gallen Stadtwerke (sgsw). As in many cities, a significant portion of the population lives in buildings without private parking spaces. These residents mainly park in on-street parking spots and do not have the option to charge at private charging stations. Charging stations in the blue zones therefore make it possible for many people to switch to electric cars in the first place.

Streetside Charging in St. Gallen

Test Run of the Charging Stations

sgsw began operating the three sites in July 2022. Two charging points, each with a charging capacity of 11 kW, were installed at each location. Picoeasee and Zaptec charging stations were used.“Since this is a pilot project, we are taking the opportunity to test the different types of stations,” says Vera Tettamanti.

In the specially marked parking spaces with charging stations, electric vehicles may only be parked while charging. Electricity must be flowing in order to be allowed to park next to the charging station. It is therefore not enough simply to plug in the car. The legal basis for this had to be established.“But surely no one has to move their car at 4:00 a.m. once it’s fully charged. If, on the other hand, the charging spaces are blocked unnecessarily, we now have the authority to issue fines,” said Vera Tettamanti. Otherwise, the regulations for on-street parking apply.

Billing

Occasional visitors can use the charging stations at a standard rate of currently CHF 0.45 per kWh. Residents, on the other hand, can sign up for a “Roadside Parking” subscription to benefit from lower rates of currently CHF 0.32 per kWh. The subscription costs CHF 10 per month. In addition, it would normally include a one-time activation fee of CHF 269.25, but this will be covered by the city of St. Gallen during the pilot phase (through the end of 2022).

Users without a subscription will be billed via credit card. Users with a subscription will receive an invoice every two months and a statement once a year. Customers of the St. Gallen municipal utility can choose whether to have the purchase billed on their household electricity bill or on a separate bill.“It’s an attempt to use pricing to keep the charging stations free for subscribers to use as much as possible. At the same time, however, we do not want to exclude anyone from the opportunity to charge their vehicles, so the stations are also available for use by guests. The subscription pays for itself starting at 1.5 full charges per month. With eCarUp, we have found exactly the solution we were looking for,” says Vera Tettamanti.

# Tip 1: Involving all stakeholders

To cover as many perspectives as possible, all stakeholders should be involved. The “Roadside EV Charging” project team in St. Gallen was structured from the outset to ensure that all relevant departments were represented. These included the civil engineering office, the city police, the structural engineering office, and St. Gallen Stadtwerke.“The project team was very well positioned, and we received great support from the entire city council. This gave us so much momentum that working on the pilot project was a great pleasure,” said Vera Tettamanti.

# Tip 2: Use exchange platforms

It pays to learn from the experiences of others. “We were able to benefit greatly from the experiences of Bern and Basel. There is a working group on e-mobility in public spaces. The cities of Zurich, Bern, Basel, Geneva, St. Gallen, and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy are represented in this group. Thanks to this experience, we were able to address certain challenges from the outset in such a way that difficulties never arose in the first place.”

# Tip 3: Clarify Responsibilities

For the time being, financing and, above all, operations must be clarified. The stations in the pilot project are owned by St. Galler Stadtwerke, which also serves as the operator. The pilot project was financed by both sgsw and the “Environment and Energy” department of the City of St. Gallen. How a larger expansion could be financed is still under review. It is clear, however, that sgsw will remain the operator. This means, for example, that sgsw is also responsible for maintaining the charging stations and ensuring that they remain operational.

# Tip 4: Billing

Billing for the charging stations is also an important issue.“It was important to the project team that sgsw have control over how the kWh price is structured and, at the same time, be able to offer two distinct service options—one with a subscription and one without.” Billing for e-charging stations requires new processes and can vary in complexity depending on the requirements.

# Tip 5: Establish a legal framework for street-side charging

Whether parking at charging stations is permitted only while charging is in progress or also at other times must be clearly defined in advance and set forth in a legal basis. After all, what exactly does “charging” mean? Does electricity have to be visibly flowing, or is it sufficient for the cable to be plugged in? In St. Gallen, this was clarified in advance to prevent any ambiguities from arising during operation.

# Tip 6: User-friendliness

User-friendliness must always be a priority. Vera Tettamanti still sees room for improvement when it comes to parking space allocation.“As a user, I want to be able to check online whether a parking space is available or not. The benefit of seeing on the relevant apps whether electricity is flowing or not is limited. In that case, the parking space could be available, or it could be occupied by a gasoline-powered or electric vehicle that isn’t charging. We are currently still installing ground sensors in the pavement. The occupancy status will be visible on our website.”Continuous improvement of the charging experience helps prevent frustration at EV charging stations.

Roadside charging is a key component in the electrification of transportation

Environmentally friendly mobility will only become a reality if it is emission-free. The city of St. Gallen is laying the groundwork for this.“Charging in the neighborhood has great potential. The majority of the automotive industry has committed to phasing out internal combustion engine cars. If no new internal combustion engine cars are produced starting in 2035, then we have to take action now. We are convinced that the use of electric charging stations will increase sharply over the next two years, ” says Vera Tettamanti. Municipal energy providers such as sgsw are ideally suited to provide privately operated charging infrastructure in public spaces. This is particularly necessary in densely built-up urban neighborhoods where it is not possible to install charging stations on private property.

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