Sunday, January 12, 2025
BRIDGEPORT – Effective in 2025 the city is pulling the plug on its electric vehicle charging station, the only one between Pateros and Grand Coulee along State Routes 117 and 174.
The decision was made at the Dec. 18 meeting of the city council after the Douglas County PUD took a steep increase in the monthly base rate effective this year.
Last November, Douglas County PUD advised Bridgeport Mayor Sergio Orozco of a rate change.
“We received a letter from the PUD on Nov. 22 that our (EV charger) rates are going up almost quadruple from where they are now,” said Orozco.
The mayor said he and city clerk/treasurer Judy Brown met with PUD commissioners on Dec. 17 to explore any options that would benefit the city or reduce the EV station rate increase. As it now stands, Bridgeport ratepayers are picking up the tab for the
“The city is paying for everything on that right now,” said Orozco. “People hook up to it, we pay for it, and we have no way of charging people who hook up to it.”
City clerk/treasurer Judy Brown itemized the costs:
With the new city rate of nearly $100 a month, “at the end of the day, we are looking at over $1,200 a year to have that,” said Orozco.
The mayor explained the contract that came with the installation of the charging unit.
“The contract that we got to install this five years ago was that we had to keep it for five years and not charge for those five years,” said Orozco. “Now we can charge for it, but the problem is we have no way to hard wire it to the city.”
“My initial opinion on this is to pull the breaker on it and not use it anymore,” said Orozco.
Orozco noted that higher traffic locations are making money from the EV stations.
“East Wenatchee charges from $25 up to $40, so they are making money,” said Orozco. “We are not.”
When the city installed its EV charger in the spring of 2017, it was one in a chain of stations along State Routes 17 and 174 stretching from Pateros to Davenport.
The installation was a cooperative effort between the city, the North Central Washington Economic Development District (NCWEDD), and its affiliate, Plug-in North Central Washington. A USDA grant covered the cost.
Effective in 2025, the city switched off its EV breaker and awaits further developments from the PUD commissioners.
Margaret Viebrock, owner of Highway 2 Brew in Waterville, has had a cost-share EV charger at her business for about a decade. She received a similar PUD rate increase advisory.
“The base rate they were going to charge me is 566 percent higher than what I was paying,” Viebrock said.
Viebrock said she wrote a letter to the PUD seeking a compromise arrangement. Her charger remains in operation while she awaits a response from the commissioners, who will meet twice in January.
“I’m not going to spend $100 a month wondering if someone is going to come in and charge,” Viebrock said.
At this writing, there are five EV charging stations in Douglas County. Two are PUD owned; one in East Wenatchee and one at Wells Dam. A third is at an apartment complex in East Wenatchee. Bridgeport and Waterville are the only two offering the service for no cost as a community service.
The EV charging station installed in Pateros earlier this year is not owned by the city. It is located on Okanogan PUD property, and the city incurs no costs for its operation.
According to the website data.wa.gov, King County leads the state in terms of the number of electric vehicles, with nearly 112,000. Snohomish County is a distant second with 26,633, and Pierce County third with 17,645. In comparison, Eastern Washington is led by Spokane County with 6.139. Douglas County numbers 484, and Okanogan County 338.
Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media
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