[Brian G]

/me points at a Shell garage around 4 miles from where he's sitting, which has had 4 150kW rapids just sitting there disconnected for 18 months now.

I can't help thinking that we need to start pointing out the folly of what is going on. I wrote to a DNO last week to ask what they were doing about two MSAs which have been left out of improvements. I got a response from the Press Office... they will find out! On the basis that I will publish info on here they took notice. I will of course publish what I find out in due course. But it is time to name and shame. The cases I am taking up are actually a cock up by Ofgem, so I won't go public yet.

 

[Brian G]

This is a really good location along the m4, especially for those of us in lower range Chademo cars.

Yep, there is even a bus stop there for when they are broken!

 

[Brian G]

In the case I mentioned, I've been prodding, and it's apparently down to a "DNO legal issue" which now may not be resolved until next March, almost 2 years after the chargers went in!

Most likely some NIMBY who doesn't want to let new power lines cross their land.

So why doesn’t the local press make a story out of it to shame the ****hole? Surely there is a way to accommodate a route?

 

[Brian G]

But Ofgem approved DNO schemes to get 8MW feeds into MSAs but that isn’t happening quickly. Exeter was a special project to design boxes that could be factory made and drop on site to get costs down. The swtchgear and transformers are then scalable as demand increases, you just bring a 33kV circuit to the MSA and link up more boxes. And yes the Kempower system has to be the way to go. 8MW could feed over 100 chargers. Assuming 25% can take 150 kW, 25% 75KW 40% 50 KW and 10% are arriving and departing you have power to spare.

 

[Brian G]

Not exactly a charging hub, but BP Pulse are installing a charger on the A31 in Four Marks at the BP/M&S garage. Within 2 minutes walk there is a fish and chip shop, a curry house and Chinese takeaway. The baker is open to mid afternoon and has a small coffee bar. There is a Tesco and Coop supermarket and 2 ‘off licences‘. The siting couldn’t be better for unofficial services. The signage is now in place with the BP Pulse sign at the bottom of the signage pole convenient for all the local male dogs to p1ss on it.

 

[Brian G]

Those 8 chargers are worth about £400,000 in hardware, probably five figures in groundworks, installation and commissioning. I suspect they've installed either a 1.5MVa or 2MVa substation for those chargers (as the peak possible) demand is 1.7MVa.

The cost of a quote for a connection between 1 and 3MVa is £1,765 for the Scottish and Southern DNO (https://www.ssen.co.uk/globalassets...assets/connection-offer-expenses/connection-offer-expenses---customer-guide.pdf). That doesn't mean it costs £1.7k to install a 1-3MVa connection, it means, it costs you £1.7k to be told how high the DNO costs will be!

The cost of the DNO HV connection and HV to LV substation could easily equal or exceed the cost of the chargers.

It might have cost Gridserve a million to put those 8 chargers in. If it's a million for 8, or two million form 16, you might see why they only started with 8!

I think Ofgem have approved the DNO to pay for much of the upgrades for connections in a build back green initiative. They, the DNOs, bid and got agreement for serious upgrades to the local networks 2 years ago I think. Clacket Lane and Maidstone were 2 MSAs not approved because there were upgrades available from National Grid. The upgrades around York May have allowed for the hubs you see. In many places we are taking 11kV connections and enough power for 100 chargers. The upgrades also included the electrification of heating in off gas grid areas in Scotland.

 

[Brian G]

I think that new chargers aren’t showing on Zap Map without a subscription. I got a message to that effect looking yesterday. How long they hide them for and from whom I dunno?

 

[Brian G]

Suffolk used to be a real desert, not any more!

 

[Brian G]

Not sure why they picked some of these sites, several have already hit the target of 6 rapids by end of year.
Maybe when they say "high-powered", they mean they want to uprate the 50kW Gridserve units to 150kW?

• Corley NB already has 8 Instavolts and 2 Gridserve rapids
• Beaconsfield has 2 Gridserve & 6 Ionity
• Clackett Lane has 2 Gridserve each side
• Maidstone has 2 Gridserve & 4 Ionity
• Taunton has a single Gridserve each side
• Tebay North has 2 Gridserve

Batteries installed by the end of Sept still leaves 3 months to hang some rapids off them.

The M25 and environs is sadly lacking in easily accessed chargers on the South and West. Given the volume of traffic for much of 24 hours. Waves of traffic leaving Eurotunnel and Dover will hit chargers simultaneously exactly what you don’t want.

 

[Brian G]

The problem with this would be cost Even if nobody was charging you’d be burning fuel and money so makes sense not to go that route. Bjorn recently covered a pretty clever setup Circle K are rolling out at sites with power limitations. It’s a 300kw/300kwh battery pack with 4 150kw kempower chargers all contained in one unit that fits in a shipping container and can run off a small 400v 43kw connection. That would be a good temporary setup for such a situation. Maybe exclude the chargers but have a container sized battery/s that the installed units connect to between it and the limited grid connection. You can then just pack’em up and move them to the next site awaiting DNO connection

The new BP Pulse chargers are cut down versions of this.

This one now live in GU34 5HR

 

[Brian G]

BP submit plans for 10-stall charging hub at M&S Warrington (Next to Ikea).
2x 300kW Alpitronic (in dual-head 150kW mode) & 6x 50kW BP Charge Master 500S units.

https://online.warrington.gov.uk/planning/index.html?fa=getApplication&id=210438

For those shopping at IKEA 15 kW chargers would be fast enough. I can never find my way out and then there are meatballs to eat too.

 

[Brian G]

On the flip side its 5 minutes away from a shopping centre with 10,000 parking spaces and 60 ish 7kw and 2x50kw chargers.
Anyone needing a charge on their way home now have options.

I'm also sure that dudley Council are giving financial support for ev charger installs.

Tesla are installing a raft of chargers on the shopping centre, i don't think they are live yet.

I suspect that there is plenty of power there. Wasn’t there a steel works on the site of the shopping centre? That would use a lot of power!

 

[Brian G]

I called up there over a week ago the Chargers are in place but the petrol station was still closed ( Fenced Off )
plus there is no sign at all of the McDonalds or costa yet.

You are more likely to find a whisky bar than a Costa. In which case a 3.6 kW charger is all you need. There is a hydro power station nearby so no shortage of power up there. And looking at Google maps they are building a new sub station, wind power too?

 

[Brian G]

Dundee and Oasis seem to be odd words to be in the same phrase. Mutually exclusive in my understanding but maybe things have changed since I was last there in 1956?

 

[Brian G]

Oh, ace. I'd been hoping they would do something there. Shame it appears to be a BP hub though. ☹

There are 3 BP chargers at M&S near Maidstone, busy and working. I think they have turned a corner! They put a 2 headed CCS charger at the BP petrol station across the road from me and that seems to be well used. It is a battery bank charger, so that my lights don’t dim when a Porsche Taycan turns up.

 

[Brian G]

How are they getting on with the Gatwick charging forecourt! Another ?20/30? Chargers within 5 miles of Pease Pottage. Crawley will be dark in the winter!

 

[Brian G]

There is definitely a case for much greater transparency for what the MSAs are doing re enabling charging and power supplies. They might be private companies, but they only exist because we paid for roads and we have to walk past their food offerings for the toilets.

I have little hope that the current government would intervene in this way given that they can't even count how many rapid chargers are at MSAs

The MSAs are short of power. This is zOfgem’s response to the DNOs bids to sort it.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2021/05/dno_green_recovery_scheme_decision.pdf

 

[Brian G]

Love that it will be on the site of a petrol station. In 10 years time we will be able to ask ICE drivers if they have range anxiety. This is the 2nd petrol station I have read has been converted in the last few days!

 

[Brian G]

To get range anxiety in my diesel Passat it would need over 80% of petrol stations to close as when 1/4 fill it still have more range then most EVs. Keeping an existing petrol station open will give good profits once there is less competition, the issue will come when the last petrol station in an area needs the tanks replacing. Hence more like 20 years then 10 years time.

Yes I have a Passat diesel too. My last one confused staff at fuel stations because it could load at truck filling pumps, very, very quickly! 50 litres in 15 seconds!

 

[Brian G]

I suspect there's a lot of road left for petrol stations. As demand falls, I suspect more stations will choose to downsize and refurb with smaller tanks and fewer pumps than fully close.

Changing tanks would be very poor business sense. The economics of getting the permissions filling a big hole and rearranging pups to sell less of something? Methinks they will just close down. Repair garages might have a 200 litre tank to add fuel for testing! I also suspect that the Gridserve route with all road level space taken up with chargers and the heavy duty electrical equipment piled up and on overbridge level lighter electrics and shop or coffee bar!