EV charging fees due soon

Fees for using Orkney Islands Council’s electric vehicle chargers are set to be introduced next month.

The move follows a public consultation in December last year and discussion with the Orkney EV Owners’ Group.

OIC currently provides four rapid and 12 fast-medium chargers that are free-to-use at present. Charges will be brought in from Monday 6 May:

• There will be a 25p-per-kWh (kilowatt hour) fee for rapid chargers, with a minimum charge of £2 for each visit.
• The fee for fast-medium chargers will be 20p per kWh, with a minimum charge of £1.
• There will be a penalty of £5 if a rapid charger is used for more than an hour, or if a fast-medium charger is used for more than three hours.

Darren Richardson, the Council’s Head of Infrastructure and Strategic Projects, said: “Our community is leading the way when it comes to EV uptake. There are more than 220 EVs in Orkney – a higher percentage of vehicles on our roads are powered by electricity than anywhere else in Scotland.

“Our network of chargers plays an important role in supporting this and we’re currently installing more chargers at a range of locations.

“But the cost of providing this service increases as more and more drivers make the switch to EV ownership and make use of the chargers - and we’ve reached the point where we need to introduce fees for their use.”

He added: “We believe many EV owners will support us in this and, more widely, the public have indicated a willingness to see new charges brought in for some of the services the Council provides, if this helps prevent cuts to frontline services.

“Introducing fees for use of our EV chargers will assist with the running costs, including routine and reactive maintenance and electricity consumption.

“We’ve worked with the local EV owners’ group in developing this set of charges and will trial these over the next 12 months. We will monitor what effect they have on use of our EV chargers and this will help us review the fees we set in future.”