Coachella Drops Plan For 30 EV Chargers, Exposing Broader Power Constraints On City Growth

Coachella has removed a plan to install 30 public electric vehicle charging stalls at Rancho Las Flores Park, a decision that has highlighted a larger challenge for the fast-growing desert city: its local electrical grid may not be ready to support the development leaders want to pursue.

Local reporting by KESQ says city officials pulled the charging proposal from a broader park expansion after weighing costs and limited electrical capacity. Mayor Frank Figueroa framed the decision as pragmatic: the city cannot expand public charging until it secures sufficient power access and upgrades key grid infrastructure.

"I think, you know, that presentation earlier this week, it was a mixture of both costs and I think electricity, electrical access," Figueroa told KESQ. "And I know that we have low capacity."

Public charging is crucial for drivers who cannot charge at home, including renters and residents of multiunit housing. Without reliable community chargers, many drivers are less likely to adopt electric vehicles, slowing progress toward cleaner local transportation.

Figueroa has been clear that the city cannot move forward with a wider public-charging rollout until it strengthens the local power backbone. "We can't really proceed with that until we resolve our power access and ensuring that we have those substations and infrastructure there, then we can talk about EV charging," he told KESQ.

The power shortfall touches other parts of the city's future growth. Coachella had entered an agreement with Stronghold Power Systems tied to a proposed technology campus and the development of a municipal electric utility. Under that plan, data centers were expected to be initial anchor customers whose demand would help justify and finance new substations and distribution upgrades.

After months of local opposition, the city ended the Stronghold agreement in June and approved a permanent ban on data centers, removing the anticipated anchor tenants while leaving the fundamental need for new electrical infrastructure unresolved.

"Economic development and growth in our city is going to be tied to the energy infrastructure, which we're working on," Figueroa said.

Figueroa also said Coachella is engaging the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) through a joint powers authority, signaling the city is pursuing regional utility and infrastructure solutions despite ending the Stronghold arrangement. "We're working to move forward with IID. We have a joint powers authority. We're moving forward with that," he told KESQ.

Implications And Options

Weak grid capacity can delay deployment of cleaner transportation, limit local investment, and complicate the delivery of public services. Before Coachella revisits large-scale public charging, it will likely need new substations and other distribution upgrades.

Communities facing similar constraints have used a mix of approaches to expand charging while managing grid impact: battery storage co-located with charging stations, managed or time-of-use charging, vehicle-to-grid programs that let EVs return power to the grid, and targeted fast-charging hubs that include on-site energy buffers.

Examples around the U.S. include Electrify America's large public battery paired with chargers in Santa Barbara, a community-focused fast-charging hub developed by Rove in Santa Ana, and a Massachusetts program that pays EV owners who feed power back to the grid. Such solutions may help Coachella expand charging access without immediately requiring massive upstream grid upgrades.

For now, Coachella is weighing its growth ambitions against the practical limits of its electric system and seeking regional partners to help build the capacity needed for future development.