Okay. Seeing no further questions for this panel and there be no 4 other panelists to testify on Bill 5 No. 260427, we will now move on to Bill No. 260464. Ms. McDonald, please call the first panel we have to testify this afternoon on Bill No. 10 260464.
Jessica Noon, Sustainability Manager, Department of Aviation. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon. My name is Jessica Noon. I'm the Sustainability Manager for the Department of Aviation. Good afternoon, Chairman Driscoll and members of the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities. My name is Jessica Noon. I'm the Sustainability Manager for Department of Aviation, which manages both Philadelphia International Airport, PHL, and Northeast Philadelphia Airport, PNE. I'm here today to testify in support of Bill No. 13 260464, authorizing the Procurement Department, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to enter into an agreement with the Philadelphia Energy Authority to purchase electricity and certain attributes and benefits related to the generation of such electricity from a solar energy facility to be built and owned by Reactivate, LLC, located at Northeast Philadelphia Airport for use at and in connection with City facilities, all under certain terms and conditions. To protect our environment, The Department of Aviation has taken many steps to move towards sustainable and green practices, such as setting ambitious goals to mitigate our environmental impact. The Department of Aviation is committed to purchasing or generating 100% renewable energy through collaboration with the City of Philadelphia's Office of Sustainability. To achieve this goal, the Philadelphia Energy Authority, PEA, has partnered with the DOA, Department of Aviation, alongside the chosen developer and owner, Reactivate, to build and maintain a solar farm at PNE. The new solar farm will provide approximately 3000 megawatts of annual energy to the PNE airport, meeting PNE's total electricity needs. Bill No. 260464 would allow the Department of Aviation to enter into a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement to build and procure renewable energy from Reactivate Solar Farm, creating the largest solar array within Philadelphia. The Department of Aviation will purchase electricity for years 13 through this PPA, reducing risk 14 exposure to volatile energy markets 15 and providing an expected $116,000 16 in energy cost savings over the 17 agreement's lifetime. 18 Reactivate will be 19 responsible for construction, 20 ownership, maintenance and 21 operation of the solar farm, and 22 the Department of Aviation will 23 have no additional costs or 24 responsibilities regarding the maintenance or operation of this project. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of Bill No. 260464. I kindly ask the committee for adoption of the amendment, a favorable recommendation and that the rules may be suspended to allow for first reading at the next session of Council. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Sure. Good afternoon, Chair Driscoll and members of the committee. I'm Katie Bartolotta, Vice President of Policy and Strategic Partnerships with the Philadelphia Energy Authority or PEA. I'm testifying in support of Bill No. 260464. PEA is an independent municipal authority advancing projects and programs that deliver on the city's most urgent priorities, lower bills, stronger infrastructure, safer neighborhoods and quality jobs. Since 2016, PEA has supported over $1.3 billion in investment, creating more than 11,000 jobs in Philadelphia and driving $2.4 billion in economic benefits across Pennsylvania. PEA works closely with the Office of Sustainability and other city departments, such as the Department of Aviation, or DOA, to fulfill its normal course of business, evaluating and pursuing cost- effective energy procurement strategies that align with the goals of the municipal energy plan. In particular, PEA provides capabilities that the city does not have on its own, including holding long-term contracts for energy procurement for projects like the onsite PNE solar project. PEA provides energy deal structure and contracting expertise to support the city's robust energy procurement strategy. Selected through a competitive bid process, the 1.5 megawatt PNE solar Power Purchase Agreement will cover 100% of PNE's electricity needs. As Jessica mentioned, a PPA is a very common structure used to develop and finance solar installations, in which the city commits to buying the electricity from the array, and the third party handles construction and operations and maintenance through the entire term of the contract. It will be the city's largest onsite solar project within the city limits. And through this procurement contract, the city will purchase electricity at a fixed rate, resulting in increased budget stability and reducing risk exposure to volatile energy markets, something I know Council has been talking about quite a bit lately. Some members may recall that DOA and PEA brought this project before Council once before in 2022. The project did not advance at that time due to challenges with the PECO interconnection process that caused months of delay and our vendor could not hold pricing until that was resolved. But DOA has been a very patient and diligent partner to PECO, making the necessary upgrades so PECO can be ready to help connect this important cost- stabilizing clean energy resource to the grid. We expect PECO will continue to be a good partner to ensure a smooth interconnection process to allow our vendor Reactivate to bring this project into operation in time to capture the sunsetting federal tax credits. PEA supports the PNE solar project. It's a key strategy in DOA's sustainability goals to ensure that the city's energy supply is clean, cost-controlled, and affordable for the long term. For these reasons, we ask for your support of Bill No. 260464.
Thank you. Once the solar is installed, is the vendor allowed to then sell that energy to other places other than the airport?
That's a great question. The vendor is selling the electricity to the airport for the entire term of the contract, so they will be the only off-taker of the power from that solar array.
Thank you for your testimony. We'll now move on to Bill No. 260464 -- I'm sorry. We'll move on to Bill No. 260431. Ms. McDonald, please call the first panel we have to testify this afternoon on Bill No. 17 260431.
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon, Chairman Driscoll and members of the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities. My name is Jessica Noon, Sustainability Manager for the Department of Aviation, DOA, which manages both Philadelphia International Airport and Northeast Philadelphia Airport. I'm here today to testify in support of Bill No. 13 260431, authorizing the Procurement Commissioner, on behalf of the City -- this is the wrong one. Sorry about that.
This is correct. I'm here to testify in support of Bill No. 260431, authorizing the Procurement Commissioner, on behalf of the City, to enter into a concession agreement with Positive Energy, Inc. for the procurement, construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of direct current fast chargers in the cell phone lot at Philadelphia International Airport, under certain terms and conditions. With the interest in electric vehicles growing within Philadelphia, many Philadelphians struggle to find places to charge their vehicles for the past few years. Our team has been studying to assess the appropriate location and opportunity at PHL to install EV charging stations for our passengers, rideshare vehicles and the public. The site was chosen as PHL cell phone waiting lot, as it is accessible to both I-95 and Route 291. The cell phone lot is located immediately northwest of the terminal complex and provides temporary parking spaces for individuals waiting to pick up travelers coming through PHL. Bill No. 260431 would install four EV fast chargers, which can charge up to eight vehicles at a time and provide a full charge within 30 minutes. All members of the public, including PHL passengers, rideshare operators, who are typically not allowed on the cell phone lot, will be allowed to access these chargers, creating an easily accessible EV charging station for people who live and work around the airport. The selected vendor, Positive Energy, Inc. will initiate a PECO amount account for this location and design and build the chargers, while the Department of Aviation will review all design and construction via concession contract. Positive Energy shall own and maintain the chargers and not impose a fee for use of them. The Department of Energy will receive 33% of the revenue for the first five years of this contract and 37% for the following five years. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of Bill No. 260431. I kindly ask the committee for a favorable recommendation and that the rules be suspended to allow for the first reading at the next session of Council. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.
I think we're good. So hearing no further questions from members for this panel and there being no other panels to testify on Bill No. 1 260431, we'll move on to Bill No. 2 260428. Ms. McDonald, will you please call the first panel we have to testify this afternoon on Bill 6 No. 260428. 7
Anna Kelly, 8 Senior Policy Advisor for EV and 9 Parking, Office of Transportation 10 and Infrastructure Systems. 11 (Witnesses approached 12 witness table.) 13
14 Good afternoon. Please state your 15 name for the record and proceed 16 with your testimony. 17
Good 18 afternoon, Chairperson Driscoll and 19 members of the Transportation 20 Committee. My name is Anna Kelly. 21 I'm Senior Policy Advisor for EV 22 and Parking with the Office of 23 Transportation and Infrastructure 24 Systems or OTIS. I'm here today with Chris Puchalsky, Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives at OTIS, and we're here to offer testimony on Bill No. 260428 sponsored by Councilmember Driscoll. In addition to Councilmember Driscoll, we'd like to thank the Councilmembers and staff for their ongoing engagement on this program. So this bill will authorize the launch of Charge PHL, a public-private partnership in which two vendors will provide over 800 publicly-available EV charging stations across the city over the next 10 years at no capital cost to the city. This bill will first authorize OTIS and the Procurement Commissioner, on behalf of the City, to execute separate multi- year concession agreements with Itselectric and PositivEnergy to site, design, install, own and maintain a network of publicly- available EV charging stations throughout the city at curbside locations and surface parking lots. PositivEnergy and Itselectric were selected out of six bids submitted for this opportunity. The procurement process was quite extensive and included several interviews, demonstrations and extensive negotiations. Both companies were selected for their experience, operations and maintenance plans, and siting and expansion approaches. In addition to this criteria, both vendors have been excellent partners throughout the negotiations, expressing a commitment to providing safe public charging throughout all Philadelphia neighborhoods and ensuring that chargers throughout the city provide the best possible user experience. While several companies that applied had the technical qualifications, these two companies rose above as partners in the work to expand EV access. Second, this bill would amend Title 12, entitled "Traffic Code" to authorize the installation, use, administration and enforcement of EV parking spaces, provide for administrative enforcement of violations of EV parking violations, which would include camera-based enforcement and towing and finally, amend Chapter 11-604 to sunset the existing private curbside charging program over the next 10 years. This program was initiated because the current state of EV charging in the city is unsafe and insufficient. 4 miles from an EV charger. The lack of available charging infrastructure leaves many EV owners dangling extension cords out of windows or across sidewalks. Through this program, the city would provide a safe option for existing EV owners and to encourage EV uptake. The expansion of EV infrastructure will also improve the city's air quality. Motor vehicles are responsible for 60% of the city's pollution, and Philadelphia consistently receives an F grade for pollution from the American Lung Association. The transition to EVs will reduce these pollutants and as a result, decrease the devastating impacts of asthma and heart disease in our communities. This expansion of our EV infrastructure will come at minimal cost to the city. Capital costs will be contributed by the vendors in conjunction with federal funding, and vendors will be responsible for the design, installation, operations and maintenance of the charging network. Securing these contracts in a timely fashion is essential to accessing federal funding rounds, some of which are coming up at the end of the summer between $14 million to $18 million in federal funding. Since the legislation was introduced, OTIS has engaged our CEO leaders, advocates and Council offices on this program to answer questions and determine strategies for citing curbside EV charging stations across the city. We've also received letters of support from Physicians for Social Responsibility, Clean Air Council and the Electrification Coalition. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today.
Thank you. Can you tell us if there or what the cost would be for the user on this? Will it be below what the market is for this or can you tell us how the pricing is determined?
Yeah. So I'll start and then if Chris has anything to add. We will be approving any fee changes within the -- the contract will enforce our approval of any fee changes. Doing some back-of-the-envelope math, a charge overnight would likely cost someone around $13, which is much lower than the cost of gas and competitive with market rate.
So I think that's my -- not a concern, but if this is going to be a government program, I would expect that it be a little bit lower than what the market can produce. You mentioned 1.5 miles away for a charger station. I don't want the government to be in the business of potentially gouging folks out because they know that they're just further away from them to move. So I just want us to look at that a little bit to see how we can lower those costs for people. If we're going to encourage EVs in our city, then make sure that the costs attributed to that are a little bit lower.
Councilmember, I appreciate that comment. The goal is that you wouldn't be farther from an EV charger than you are currently from a gasoline station. And what we've seen with the private market, it's not so much that the costs are high with the privately-available chargers. Like my colleague Anna said, they're much cheaper than paying for gas. They're just not available in certain neighborhoods. And when we see where the private sector has chosen to install chargers, it's mostly concentrated in Center City. And what we're looking to do for this program is making sure that every resident has access to EV charging close at hand in their neighborhood.
Thank you. I got drilled by a constituent who lives in Fairmount who's asking for this because they see their neighbors under the old program essentially have a free parking spot in front of their house. And so, they wanted access to this. I mentioned this legislation, but it's years too 6 late for them essentially. 7 So I look forward to 8 helping with this particular 9 program and installing these all 10 over the city, which brings to my next question. In my district we have a lot of city-owned land. Have you guys looked into developing city-owned land for some of these charging stations?
Yes. So we are going to be using currently city-owned and public PPA-operated lots are going to be used for the chargers. If there are opportunities with other city-owned land and there's not -- we'll be glad to work with the Department of Public Property to find that, if that's the use that makes sense.
I mean I'm just thinking, for example, in North Philly, there is no Parking Authority -- I mean, there is a Parking Authority managed lot but it's on city-owned land. So I would just hope that we take a look at some of those outside of -- neighborhoods where we want the expansion of electric vehicles, if we can put that infrastructure there to kind of incentivize those residents to purchase electric vehicles, I think it would be helpful. I mean, I have a lot of friends who they rent Teslas for Ubers, but they had to drive all the way up to the Northeast to charge their cars up while they're working, right. So it'll be helpful if you want to incentivize other residents to purchase these electric vehicles to install them in those neighborhoods where we might not think that folks will want to have them.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So currently, how many charging stations do we have in Philadelphia?
The last count that I did there's around 175 that are publicly-available. There's a lot that are private that people have in their garages, et cetera, that we don't have access to that data. But, yeah, just under 200.
And the rollout of these stations that are publicly accessible, will they be in a 7-Eleven, you can go in and charge your car? What's the distribution plan for these stations?
Yeah, absolutely. So there's sort of two categories here. One is the PPA parking lots as we mentioned. We'll be installing charging stations, fast-charging stations, and Level 2 charging stations in a variety of PPA parking lots. And then additionally, we'll be looking at curbside locations and we'll be working with Council offices and with our COs to cite those locations where they best make sense. We are going to build into the contracts a distribution plan that ensures that there are chargers distributed to all Council districts. We want to make sure that that is solidified in this 10-year contract so we have distribution across the city.
So it varies a little bit. Fast-charging stations are quite expensive. They're around $800,000 for a project. But Level 2 chargers are much less expensive. They're around $15,000 to $25,000. That's one of the reasons we wanted to do a concession contract. That means the vendors are bringing those capital costs to the table in conjunction with federal funds that we already won or are planning on applying for.
We're hoping to have the first chargers installed at the beginning of 2027, if all goes well with contracting timelines.
Hearing no further questions from this panel and there being no other panels to testify on bills before the committee, we will now transition to our public comment session. Ms. McDonald, will you please call the first person making public comment we have to testify this afternoon on the bills before the committee. I will note that Mr. Lance Haver has already spoken.
Okay. I'd like to thank all our witnesses for joining us today. There being no further questions from members of the committee and no other witnesses to testify on Bill Nos. 251020, 251021, 260426, 260427, 260464, 260431, 260428. I will ask if there's anyone else present in this hearing whose name we have failed to call and that wishes to offer testimony on the bills being considered today? (No response.)
Hearing none, I want to thank the panels and the witnesses for their participation today. This concludes the public hearing of the committee. We will now go into a public meeting to consider the action to be taken on the bills before this committee today. Ms. McDonald, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance, please indicate you are present when your name is called.
Present. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Young for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 251021.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 251021. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the committee. I move that the amendment to Bill No. 22 251021 be approved. (Duly seconded.)
The Chair notes for the record that Councilmember Jones seconds the motion. It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill No. 251021 be approved. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. The motion carries and the amendment to Bill 17 No. 251021 has been approved. Chair recognizes Councilmember Young for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 260464.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 260464. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the committee. I move that the amendment to 260464 be approved. (Duly seconded.)
Chair notes for the record that Councilmember Brooks seconds the motion. It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill No. 260464 be approved. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. The motion carries and the amendment to Bill 23 No. 260464 has been approved. Chair recognizes Councilmember Young for a motion on Bill No. 251021 as amended and Bill 3 No. 260464 as amended.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that Bill Nos. 251021 as amended and Bill No. 8 260464 as amended be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation, and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit the first reading of these bills at our next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
The Chair notes for the record that Councilmember Brooks seconds the motion. It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 22 251021 as amended and Bill No. 23 260464 as amended be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. The motion carries. Chair recognizes Councilmember Young for a motion on Bill Nos. 251020, 260426, 260427, 260431 and 260428.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that Bill Nos. 251020, 260426, 260427, 260431 and 260428 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation, and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of these bills at our next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
The Chair notes for the record that Councilmember Squilla seconds the motion. It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill Nos. 251020, 260426, 260427, 260431 and 260428 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of these bills at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. The motion carries. This concludes the business before this Committee on Transportation -- hold on. This concludes the business before the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities today. Thank you all very much for your attendance. We're adjourned. (Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities concluded at 4:59 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. _______________________________ TANEHA CARROLL