Ramsey County opened its first electric car-charging station Thursday at the Ramsey County Library in Roseville.
Over the next year, the county plans to add five more charging stations: four at the Union Depot in downtown St. Paul and one at the Ramsey County Library in Maplewood.
The cost is $3 for up to three hours of charging, and $1 an hour after that. The station is first-come, first served; no reservations are taken. Payment can be made with contactless credit card or an access card from ChargePoint.
There are about 30 other electric charging stations in the state, with many in St. Paul, Minneapolis and Bloomington.
Charging facts from Ramsey County:
The unit charges using faster 240 volts, or what is called Level II charging, or slower 120 volts with Level I charging, depending upon how the vehicle is designed. Time to reach a full charge varies based on type of vehicle being charged and how drained the battery is. Drivers can “top off” their battery’s charge in short sessions, or take several hours to charge a very low battery. Level II charging, with a 7.2 kW power transfer, usually takes less than half the time of Level I charging which transfers power at a rate of 2.0 KW.
The station functions in temperatures ranging from 22 degrees below zero to 131 degrees above zero.
The station equipment is owned and maintained by the County with financial transactions and web-based intelligence support managed by ChargePoint, which currently manages about 3,000 stations in its network across the U.S.