Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by white exec »

There are some quite decent heavy rubber cable covers - somewhere between a narrow office type, and a rubber speed ramp. Could swat a few e-scooter pavement riders, too.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Sundon Substation in Bedfordshire got a mention the other day on the back of Jim's pylon picture. Our friends Electricity de France (EDF Renewables Pivot Power) have plans to build networks to support large EV Charging Hubs. One of the location where they will be installing a 50MW battery to the high Voltage transmission network is Sundon.
"We are developing a national network of Energy Superhubs. These combine grid-scale batteries with high volume power connections to create rapid electric vehicle (EV) charging networks, powered by low carbon energy. We have chosen sites that are close to National Grid substations, major road networks and nearby towns and cities.

At each location we plan to build a 50MW battery connected to the high-voltage transmission network. The battery will provide essential flexibility to future-proof our electricity system and help deliver secure, affordable, low carbon power."
Alongside the battery, we plan to develop a private wire network, which will share the connection to the transmission network and deliver power to strategic locations nearby (within approximately 15km radius) that require multi-MWs of power for EV charging. This will create the power infrastructure needed to charge large numbers of vehicles quickly, from bus depots and distribution centres to park and rides and motorway service areas.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Yes the infrastructure let us down today. For the first time attempted to use the normally reliable Geniepoint charger at Morrisons. Difference this time someone had just plugged his £48,000 Mercedes Hybrid into the ac socket of the Charger. I thought with the genepoint chargers being fairly recent installations that it would be able to still churn out the DC to the Chademo. Not so.

So changed plans slightly and headed off to Alnwick. On the free charger a driverless Leaf at 96% charge and a Driverless hybrid Audi also plugged in. The audi wasnt charging. Couldnt be bothered to wait so went over to the vacant Osprey pay-for chargers outside M&S. Successful but expensive.

Did notice although didnt put it to the acid test, that while mine was on charge both of the DC charge availability indicators were "blued out" but the AC port remained green. Suggests to me that those chargers would cope with one vehicle on Ac and one on DC, but never 2 using the different DC plugs. (CCS and Chademo)
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by Mandrake »

I’m yet to see or hear about any chargers that will do both CCS and Chademo simultaneously but many will do AC and one DC connector at once. It seems to depend on how much supply power is available at the site as to whether simultaneous AC/DC operation is enabled. It seems to be the norm on ChargePlace Scotland rapid chargers.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by Mandrake »

The UK's top 16 charging networks ranked by user preference:

https://www.zap-map.com/revealed-uks-to ... -networks/

I don't think there will be any surprises in there for anyone who drives an EV... :)

First place Tesla Superchargers, 2nd place Instavolt, 3rd place Osprey (previously Engenie last time I used them!) and Ecotricity at the bottom in 16th place yet again.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by CitroJim »

I see the new LIDL, being (incredibly rapidly) built just outside the Paggers town boundary has a suite of charging stations installed in its car park...

I wonder if they throw a charge into the car in a similar way the cashiers throw your shopping at you through the checkout :twisted: :lol:
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

So what do the big energy companies do grab market share in the electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Swallow the small fry to get bigger.

Shell, you may remember them from their petrol stations, have recently acquired Ubitricity (yes I've never heard of them but they are the UK's largest charging network)

Shell buys Ubitricity, UK’s largest EV charging network

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Well Ubitricity claim on their website they are the UK's Largest Charging Provider. They seem to specialise in on-street charging.



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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by mickthemaverick »

That looks quite sensible as far as the point of delivery is concerned. My problem is very simple. The more charging access points you have along a street the greater the total current needed feeding the street. In my opinion very few streets will have sufficient conductors to cope with the highly increased load envisaged by that video. Therefore while the basic premise that electricity is all around us maybe true we are still left with a huge upgrade program of the network to enable it to supply the current required to fulfil the dream of chargers working simultaneously at every parking space!! Still a long way to go methinks!! :)
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

From time to time I have a watch of a few videos from this very good young electrician on his Youtube Channel, Artisan Electrics.

Many videos of home charging point installations, and I see now he has a new vehicle for his business, a logoed up Tesla Model 3. Not untypically he is enthusiastic about his car.



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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

^^^^ the video includes an installation of a simple charger in a garage. A Mini EO. EO on their website point out its not eligible for the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) Grant (currently max £350 contribution) because it is not a "smart" charger. The fitted price is from £795 installed. That is EV home charging at its simplest. The "smart" version the EO Mini Pro 2, with the grant of currently of £350 knocked off is surprisingly cheaper than the simple one from £595 fitted. ( https://www.eocharging.com/home-chargin ... g-products ).

Of course if you buy/lease a new car the home charger is probably thrown in.

£795 /£595 too much for me in the bargain basement electric world, so I'll keep doing what I'm doing, and enjoy the free 7kW public charger while I can. I have the plug in cable via a normal domestic 3-pin plug if I need it albeit with an overnight timescale for charging up
All government funded home chargepoints for electric vehicles must use innovative ‘smart’ technology from July 2019, the government announced today (14 December 2018), fulfilling the commitment in the Road to Zero Strategy published earlier this year.
This means chargepoints must be able to be remotely accessed, and capable of receiving, interpreting and reacting to a signal. Smart charging can also reduce high peaks of electricity demands, minimising the cost of electric vehicles to the electricity system – and keeping costs down for consumers by encouraging off-peak charging.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by CitroJim »

An item on the local news today alleges that Milton Keynes has more EV charging points than any other city/town outside London...

Apparently...

I see two of them have appeared in a small car park in Paggers and our new Lidl store has a couple too...

They're sprouting up like weeds...
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

CitroJim wrote: 11 Feb 2021, 16:35 An item on the local news today alleges that Milton Keynes has more EV charging points than any other city/town outside London...

Apparently...

I see two of them have appeared in a small car park in Paggers and our new Lidl store has a couple too...

They're sprouting up like weeds...
Hopefully they are more useful than weeds, Jim. Mind you, I think somebody said that "One mans' weed is another mans' flower". (It could have been "One mans' weed is another mans' high!").
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by CitroJim »

Hell Razor5543 wrote: 11 Feb 2021, 16:41 Hopefully they are more useful than weeds, Jim. Mind you, I think somebody said that "One mans' weed is another mans' flower". (It could have been "One mans' weed is another mans' high!").
:lol: Love it James 8-) Just like one man's rubbish is another man's treasure...

Even though they're currently (pun intended) no use to me, maybe they will be one day ;)
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by mickthemaverick »

CitroJim wrote: 11 Feb 2021, 16:48

Even though they're currently (pun intended) no use to me, maybe they will be one day ;)
Watt are you saying Jim? :-D
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