Research · Commercial Economics · August 2026

What public curbside Level 2 charging actually costs to provide

Break-even pricing, electricity cost, and utilization analysis for a public right-of-way charging operator under Alexandria's program. The purpose is twofold: to ground the cost comparison's $0.30/kWh public-L2 price in commercial reality, and to identify what actually drives the economics of the City's own curbside program.

Program context

Alexandria approved its curbside charging program in February 2026: qualified vendors install publicly accessible chargers in the right-of-way at no cost to the City, carry installation, maintenance, and customer-service responsibility, and operate under an initial five-year license. The City's insurance package for operators (commercial general liability at $1M/$2M, $1M auto, $2M umbrella, workers' compensation, cyber) is treated here as a portfolio-level cost allocated across ports — the appropriate commercial framing for a scaled operator.

Electricity: the floor under every price

A single 7.6 kW curbside port ordinarily fits Dominion Energy Virginia's Schedule GS-1 (small general service, under 30 kW demand). Because the filed tariff is a stack of base rates and changing riders, the model uses a rounded 14.0¢/metered-kWh input calibrated to the current GS-1 structure, plus the $13.39 monthly customer charge and 8% meter-to-vehicle losses.

The high-utilization energy-only floor is ~15.2¢ per delivered kWh. The 14.0¢/metered-kWh input is an analytical assumption derived from the GS-1 tariff structure and current riders, not a quoted flat Dominion rate.

Break-even retail pricing

The central commercial case: $7,500 installed cost per port, five-year economic life (matching the City's license term), 10% required return (capital-recovery factor 0.264), $1,250/yr fixed O&M (maintenance, network, insurance allocation, admin, support), and a 5% revenue-processing allowance.

Covers electricity, fixed O&M, capital recovery, and revenue processing; no income tax or profit margin beyond the 10% return embedded in capital recovery.

Building-hosted service

A building-hosted architecture (the "it's electric" model) draws on spare electrical capacity in an adjacent building — separately metered, with the property owner reimbursed for electricity and paid a 6¢/kWh revenue share. Adding that share while omitting a new-service customer charge, break-even at 20% utilization is about $0.38/kWh for a $3,000 hosted install versus $0.43/kWh for a $7,500 direct-service install: the hosted model wins exactly when it materially reduces installation cost.

Utilization is the critical variable

The economics are sharply nonlinear at low utilization: at 5%, even a $3,000 direct-service port needs $0.86/kWh to break even. Between 15% and 30% utilization, break-even falls rapidly. Real-world reference points from New York City's curbside L2 pilot: overall plug-in utilization reached 34% in December 2022, the ten busiest sites exceeded 54%, the ten least-busy were under 22% — and by 2026 NYC reported its remaining curbside network occupied more than 70% of the time. Alexandria should not assume New York utilization, but 20–30% is plausible for well-selected urban curbside sites.

Policy implications for Alexandria's program

• Site selection beats fee-tuning. At 20% utilization, halving installed cost from $15,000 to $7,500 lowers break-even by roughly 16¢/kWh — far more than any plausible permit-fee change.
• Make-ready risk is a core design issue. Building-powered installations trade higher variable electricity cost for much lower interconnection and construction cost.
• The five-year license creates capital-recovery pressure. Longer successor terms, predictable renewals, or lower removal risk directly reduce the revenue a port must earn.
• Insurance should be evaluated at fleet level. Charging each port a full stand-alone premium overstates commercial cost for a scaled operator — the same proportionality principle argued for residents in Liability Insurance.
• The first two years of data matter most. Utilization, delivered kWh, uptime, installation cost, and maintenance incidents can replace these modeling assumptions before the City evaluates expansion.

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