Above: An electric charging station was recently installed in Downtown Fairmont outside City Hall.

FAIRMONT — The city of Fairmont recently installed several electric vehicle charging stations. The chargers were purchased for and provided to the city by the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMMPA), which is the city’s wholesale electric provider.

“They purchased chargers for all of their members as part of their sustainability plan,” said city engineer Troy Nemmers.

He said that utilities are paying for the installation costs for the chargers, which have been installed in recent weeks.

Nemmers said they’ve been getting the chargers powered up and now he is going through the final set-up online. An app will be used to operate the chargers.

“When someone logs into the app, they can select the charger they want to use and then they’ll be charged through the app and pay for the electric usage that way. The city will be reimbursed a portion of those fees through the process,” Nemmers explained.

The city received two level 2 chargers and one DC fast charger.

Nemmers said the level two charger takes an hour or two to get a good charge on your vehicle, whereas the fast charger takes 20 or 30 minutes.

He said SMMPA has rates for electric vehicle chargers that vary between the two charges and depend on the type of electric vehicle. A level 2 charger is $2 an hour and the DC fast charger is 30 cents a minute.

As for picking the locations, Winnebago Avenue Sports Complex and downtown near City Hall, Nemmers said they looked at locations where people had things to do because with the level 2 charger, it takes at least an hour to get a good charge.

“The downtown location is a place people can walk around and have things to do and the same with the sports complex. It’s near a bunch of trails and the veterans memorial site is there, too.”

The sports complex, which has one level 2 charger and the DC fast charger, is also located near the interstate so that it can catch people who are traveling and looking for a charge.

“We have them all hooked up electrically, we just have to get all of the behind-the-scenes stuff done before we can make them officially available to the public so people can plug in, activate them and pay for them through the app,” Nemmers said.

The DC fast charger at Winnebago Sports Complex also has a credit card reader on it so people use the app or pay by card.

Nemmers said that the electric vehicle community has a whole network online that lists where chargers are. He’s working on getting it set up with vendors so Fairmont’s shows up on the maps as well.

“The electric vehicle market is growing pretty quickly and is expected to continue to grow. There may be a relatively small demand locally. We do have it near the interstate and over the next few years the electric vehicle market will change locally,” Nemmers said.

He said this is a good start to introduce people to it and he said he knows of a few people in town who are waiting to use it.

“I’m curious and excited to see the usage. We’re able to track it and SMMPA’s doing the same thing across their network to see how much they’re being used,” Nemmers said.

He’s aiming for them to be ready to use by the end of this month.