The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) provides electric service to 1.4 million people in a 900-square-mile service area around California’s capital city. SMUD is working to install “fast-charge” stations to extend the driving range of electric vehicles (EVs). SMUD is one of the first utilities to install EV fast-charge stations. SMUD’s Electric Transportation unit developed their first fast-charge station in 2014 and opened a second in the spring of 2015. EV drivers pay approximately $2 per “gallon” to charge using the station. The stations include 240-volt chargers as well as technology that charges vehicles at 480 volts—four times that of a standard household outlet. Fast-charge-capable vehicles can fill up about 80 percent of their batteries in 30 minutes or less.
To advance SMUD’s objective to open more fast-charge stations, SMUD’s Real Estate Services unit retained OPC in early 2015 to negotiate the necessary real estate rights at privately-owned retail center sites in Sacramento County. OPC is acting as SMUD’s agent in negotiating the terms and conditions of agreements for a base term with renewal options so that SMUD charging stations can be constructed and operated at three well-located retail properties.