EV charging poles coming to Blacktown

Electric vehicle charging stations will be installed around the Blacktown district in Sydney’s West to encourage people to take up the technology.

The Blacktown City Council has agreed to make a one-off contribution of $30,000 to the project and enter into a 15-year licence agreement with smart pole provider ENE-HUB.

ENE-HUB will install and maintain the smart poles, which will be free for people to use in the first three years of operation. After three years, ENE-HUB will move to a user-pays system.

Councillors have agreed to install the ENE HUB smart poles at 10 locations across the city, including three on Main St and one on Flushcombe Rd at Blacktown.

The smart poles would not only charge EVs but could support other technology such as LED street lighting, CCTV and Wi-Fi.

Currently there are only 1045 EVs registered across New South Wales.

The council’s energy manager Jon Bannister says while not many people own EVs, he hopes the infrastructure will encourage residents to drive them.

“It’s certainly the way of the future and the not too distant future,” he told the Blacktown Advocate.

Blacktown already has one EV charge point at the Max Webber Library carpark that is often used by electric car drivers.

The council also has eight Mitsubishi plug-in hybrid electric cars as part of its fleet.