Lack of an adequate charging infrastructure and the resulting “range anxiety” are frequently cited as among the top barriers to widespread electric vehicle adoption. Addressing that key EV issue, Calgary, Alberta, Canada has installed 42 additional EV charging facilities at municipal parking lots throughout the city.
“As part of Calgary’s Climate Resilience Strategy, it was determined that electric vehicles represent the single largest opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from transportation,” says Senior Transportation Engineer Eric MacNaughton. “With exponential growth of electric vehicle adoption expected, these new charging stations are one way we can make sure Calgary is ready for the future of transportation.”
“With dedicated parking stalls equipped with Level II charging stations, Calgarians can charge while they work,” notes Glen Furtado, general manager of the Calgary Parking Authority. Because the system is being funded at no charge to taxpayers through a Tesla Charging Infrastructure Municipal Grant, users are able to pay the regular parking rate when accessing the units, which accept both Tesla-specific and universal plugs.
Calgary is Canada’s third-largest city, and its population of 1.2 million is relatively young and receptive to EVs, averaging 36 years old. New arrivals annually amount to 40,000 people; 28 percent of them are minorities immigrating from a variety of Canadian provinces and other nations.
“With the introduction of initiatives like the Peaks to Prairies EV Charging Network, declining EV purchase costs and new federal rebates coming available, EV ownership is becoming more of a reality for Calgarians,” according to MacNaughton.
Sharon Fleming, director of the Calgary Fleet Services Department, has recently rolled out a SMART Fleet program of environmentally friendly improvements to the 4,000-vehicle municipal motor pool.
She is responsible for city’s complete vehicle lifecycle management, covering engineering, acquisition, fabrication, commissioning, training, maintenance and decommissioning. Efforts are managed through six maintenance facilities, a body shop and a fabrication shop.
Fleming’s expertise is in demand among transportation planning officials and other global industry professionals, recently speaking about the topic at June’s Montreal International Fleet Forum, which was co-sponsored by the NYC Fleet division within the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) of New York City.
Achieving honors such as an award for “Most Innovative Fleet Management Strategy,” Fleming recently fielded a series of questions pertaining to the details of implementing fleet EVs:
What is your role as the City of Calgary’s Director of Fleet Services?
I oversee a team of over 200 staff who ensure our 1,000-plus heavy trucks, 1,600-plus light vehicles and 1,300-plus motorized equipment are safe, cost effective available and environmentally conscious.
Fleet Services enable the delivery of city services such as waste and recycling pick-up, road maintenance, water services, etc., through the life cycle management of vehicles, equipment and components. This includes the acquisition, maintenance and disposal of these assets. It also includes engineering, manufacturing and safety governance support.
My role as director is to provide strategic oversight and direction for the effective management of the city’s fleet. The most interesting part of my job is the ability to keep the City of Calgary moving by exploring new, innovative approaches and solutions.
What are some of the practices and technologies that the city has implemented to reduce its fleet’s greenhouse gas
The City of Calgary’s fleet is responsible for 20 percent of the city’s total GHG emissions. As part of our commitment to the city’s Climate Resilience Strategy, we are continuously evaluating current market offerings, as well as future technology, including electric vehicles. We are in particular looking at options that will sustain operations in Calgary’s extreme weather conditions.
Working with our customer business units to review their fleet-specific operational requirements, we are also identifying opportunities to right-size vehicles, relinquish or share units with low utilization, and encourage the purchase of units that support the City of Calgary’s environmental commitments.
Regarding the SMART Fleet program, what are the intended purposes, and what does it entail?
Our SMART Fleet program establishes a plan for improving green and safe driving practices for operators, a car share program to help increase fleet utilization, and other improvements to better leverage the fleet’s work management system and improve data quality and reliability. The program has three main projects:
- Flex Fleet is a project aimed to improve fleet utilization by implementing a specialized car share solution. This would be a pilot project for 10-25 vehicles by 2020.
- The e-Fleet project will build on existing capabilities of M5 software to improve efficiencies and reduce manual, paper-based processes within maintenance operations.
- The Safe Fleet project will look for innovative ways to improve the fleet’s environmental performance, safe driving and data integrity by implementing a governance model and optimizing existing technology.
Earlier this year, the city received a Future Fleet Award for most innovative fleet management strategy at the London Future Fleet Forum. What was this recognition for and what does it mean for the city?
The Future Fleet Awards recognize the achievements of local authorities, public sector contractors and individuals in the fields of safety, innovation and sustainability in fleet management.
The City of Calgary won the most innovative fleet management strategy award for our patented asphalt carrier and recycler built on a standardized multi-purpose vehicle platform, developed entirely in house. It is projected to save millions in capital and operating costs while diverting tonnes of asphalt waste from landfill.
We’re honoured to have received this recognition, which validates our team’s multi-year efforts to achieve efficiencies through innovation and reduce operational costs. By licensing this design, we hope many other municipalities are able to benefit as well.
What new strategies does the city wish to explore in the upcoming years in its continuous effort toward a greener fleet?
We are conducting an alternate fuel evaluation and a pilot project with waste and recycling heavy vehicles to test other fuel possibilities such as compressed natural gas and electric. We will review the outcomes of the fuel source evaluation project this year, with the hope of running the pilot in 2020.
Also, we are currently reviewing our anti-idling policy and are evaluating methods and processes to improve monitoring and reporting to curb the behavior of unnecessary idling.
Finally, we are working on the development of new prototypes. So stay tuned as more exciting projects will be forthcoming.
