Reached a dead end, but atleast I tried, and got a sympathetic hearing.
You should read this bottom up
- Jay
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From: <Facilities Director>
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 11:35 AM
To: Jayakumar, Jay
Subject: RE: Provision to charge an electric car
Jay, all of our parking lot lights are on 277 volt single phase and as you can guess are only on at night. That said, due to the distance from the main building out to the parking lot areas a higher voltage feed would be required due to the voltage drop from the length of runs. This would mean a step down transformer would have to be added with a power panel and everything would need to be weather tight for exterior conditions. We actually looked a couple of different solutions but again kept running up against capital investment will no identifiable ROI for the investment.
My hope in the future is the technology would advance where solar charging stations can be available as a reasonable cost and eliminate the need to run electrical feeders out to parking spaces. This would allow for charging stations to be placed anywhere in a parking lot. I guess we are ahead of the technology curve.
Regards,
<yyy>
From: Jayakumar, Jay
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 11:24 AM
To: <Facilities Director>
Subject: RE: Provision to charge an electric car
Dear <Facilities Director>,
Thanks for your quick reply. I agree that the Blink option would require you to run a 220V cable/socket and associated infrastructure which does involve capital expenses.
On the other hand has the company looked into the possibility of installing a run of the mill standard 120V socket perhaps in few lighting poles in the parking lot? That in fact would be sufficient for this facilities patrons. Just wondering.
Again thanks for taking the time to respond back to me.
Regards
Jay Jayakumar
From: <Facilities Director>
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 11:09 AM
To: Jayakumar, Jay
Subject: RE: Provision to charge an electric car
Jay, I'm very familiar with the infrastructure needed to add charging stations in our parking lot, we actually reviewed with Blink/Ecotality late last year. The capital investment on <Company>'s side to reach our parking areas has made the concept a very low priority at this time.
Thank you for offering to share your thoughts but at this time this is not something we are looking at investing in.
<YYY>
Director
Facilities & Corporate Services
From: Jayakumar, Jay
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 10:58 AM
To: <Facilities Director>
Subject: RE: Provision to charge an electric car
Dear <Facilities Director>,
Let me introduce myself as a long term Texas resident, an ex-HP employee and currently an employee of <company>. I am the Program Manager for Infrastructure services for <company>’s test servers and equipment and have been working in this facility for close to 3 years now.
Wanted to share with you the following email I sent to <yyy>. If you would like to meet me in person, I would be glad to stop by at your office anytime.
regards
Jay Jayakumar
<signature>
From: Jayakumar, Jay
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 4:45 PM
To: <Facilities Manager>
Subject: Provision to charge an electric car
Dear <Facilities Manager>,
Apropos the conversation we had last month, I am following up with an email on the subject of providing a means to charge an electric car in our facility.
As you might already know that cars that run on electricity are getting more common now a days and these vehicles are getting increasingly popular to save on Gasoline expenses and also as responsible citizens they serve as a means to contribute less to the pollution. These vehicles depend on a public infrastructure of charging stations, spread across businesses, hotels, shopping centers, malls, etc., but more so where these vehicles are parked for fairly long time. The charging times are typically in the order of hours, not minutes. The range of these cars at this time is less than 100 miles, that sometimes a charge for a few hours while in office may be necessary.
As a result many corporations, with an eye towards encouraging these green initiatives among its employees and making electric cars more practical, have provided some means to charge electric cars. There are two simple options that both work reasonably well.
a) Couple of simple standard 120V sockets. No different from the ones we have at our homes that we plug our iPhones in.
b) 220 V sockets (similar to our home dryer plugs) wherein a vendor would install their charging equipment – free of cost. BLINK/Ecotality is one such company that does this throughout DFW metro area.
Please note that the cost of actual electricity usage would be fairly insignificant – around $2 for 9 hours of charging on 120V. So the cost for the corporation on electricity usage per month would be very minimal to nothing, but the benefits for the employees who depend on a charger to get back home, are pretty high. In fact it would be great if <company> can identify a means to have the concerned users pay for the charges, so that no one is under the illusion that they are getting free electricity. Also this is a great statement for <company> to make that they care for the environment and employees that need these services.
Looking forward to your reply.
Regards
Jay Jayakumar