Cork council to appoint someone to deliver electric vehicle charging network across city
Cork City Council identified 244 potential neighbourhood charging stations and 65 potential community charging stations to be delivered by 2030.
A person is to be appointed to drive delivery of the ambitious €22m electric vehicle (EV) charging network plan for Cork City.
However, given the time lag between the adoption of the strategy last year and the appointment, it is unlikely initial targets of having dozens of EV charging points in place by the end of this year will be met.
The update on the appointment was provided to Green Party councillor and deputy lord mayor Honore Kamegni at the March meeting of the city council.
He was told the Department of Transport had given approval to Cork City Council for the creation of the new post, and the council would have to seek sanction for it through the Department of Local Government.
Once the person is appointed, an implementation plan will be prepared to “set out the delivery pathway”, he was told.
The Cork EV strategy was drafted in the context of a €100m national three-year EV strategy launched in 2023 which set out plans for the delivery of a national EV charging network comprising four categories — home/apartment charging, residential neighbourhood charging, destination charging, and motorway/en-route charging.
Local authorities will be the main players in the delivery of the residential neighbourhood and destination charging infrastructure.
City councillors adopted the Cork strategy last June, which sets out plans to install almost 700 publicly available EV charging points at charging stations or pools across the city by 2030.
It identified 244 potential neighbourhood charging stations and 65 potential community charging stations to be delivered by 2030, most in areas where residential properties do not have access to private driveways or off-street parking.
The plan said it hoped to have the first tranche, 44 neighbourhood and 26 community charging stations, delivered by the end of this year, requiring an investment of between €4m and €5.5m.
The second phase, which will require another €11.5m to €17m, aims to have 200 normal and 39 fast charging pools operational by 2030, providing between 550 and 700 individual charging points.
Normal charging units will be located in housing estates or on side-streets, with fast charging units placed in publicly accessible locations like publicly managed car parks, publicly controlled lands such as libraries, private retail car parks and community car parks attached to sports grounds or churches.
The strategy envisages the normal chargers being within a two-minute walk of every home without off-street charging, with the fast-chargers within a five-to-10 minute walk of every home without off-street charging.
Each charging station or charging pool will have capacity to charge several cars simultaneously.
Mr Kamengi was told there are about 50 locations through the city where EV drivers can avail of charging facilities with nine different charge point providers.
“The majority of these are destination charging but the provision has increased somewhat from the original 13 sites which were provided in the city by ESB E-cars which included locations at the park and ride, and Paul St car park,” an official said.
“Cork City Council is actively engaging with Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland with respect to the implementation of the council’s EV charging strategy."
Specialist contractors will be required to operate the service and delivery of charging points will be dependent on energy capacity and connections at each sites.
