Vacaville L3 Chargepoint

[walterbays]

To make an even better event, get together and buy a Nissan CHAdeMO charger, and hook it up to a rented diesel generator to charge cars that drive to the event. Let everyone know the reason all the Leafs have to run on diesel, and that besides your diesel powered unit the only other quick charger functioning in the state of California is at Mitsubishi HQ in LA. But there are quick chargers in Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Illinois, and New York.

After the event maybe you can find a good permanent home for your quick charger.

 

[johnr]

All of rawhog's posts have gone blank! Is this his doing or a moderator's? I really, really hate when people do that!!

 

[Phoenix]

Perhaps we could stage a funeral like they did for the EV1. Call all the Sacramento and Bay Area news folks and make them aware of the event. All of the Leafs who are in range of it could show up to "pay respects" to our fallen charge station. I know I could make it there and back but it would be a slow trip without any charging between.

Love this idea too but our goal should be to have the Vacaville DC working and open to the public. Not ready to give up on this resource yet, especially if it can be saved for the "commons". Some information gleaned from the Green Drive Expo on Sept. 17th:

PG&E needs a new QC since the existing donated TEPCO is not UL certified and unlikely to be soon. Blink (and maybe others) should have their UL certification this month (September 2011). Blink is having trouble finding locations for their 20 "free" DC chargers allocated to the 9 bay area counties. AV is allocated 10 free DC chargers per same BAAQMD announcement. It appears to be hard to find locations near a freeway corridor with the 400+ voltage infrastructure and a willing property owner. Vacaville QC has the advantage of good location, 400+ voltage. Maybe PG&E and Vacaville are amenable to some public QC usage here if it can be worked out? Especially since there is public funding available through BAAQMD. Is this too naive? What can be done?

 

[Spies]

Placing one of the "new and approved" CHAdeMO units at the Vacaville location by way of the BAAQMD program seems like a no brainer idea to me and I have thought the same myself. I feel Vacaville is one of the most ideal locations in all of the Bay Area to have a CHAdeMO unit. I almost feel that since there is already a closed CHAdeMO unit at this location it prevents other CHAdeMO units from being installed as absurd as that sounds.

The Blink guy, Mr. Smith I believe, said an Arco station in Farifeild might be their first CHAdeMO install with Bishop Ranch in San Ramon possibly being their second. Still not keen on going to an Arco station to charge an electric car and will most likely sway my decision from charging there.

 

[ElectricVehicle]

Perhaps we could stage a funeral like they did for the EV1. Call all the Sacramento and Bay Area news folks and make them aware of the event. All of the Leafs who are in range of it could show up to "pay respects" to our fallen charge station. I know I could make it there and back but it would be a slow trip without any charging between.

Love this idea too but our goal should be to have the Vacaville DC working and open to the public. Not ready to give up on this resource yet, especially if it can be saved for the "commons". Some information gleaned from the Green Drive Expo on Sept. 17th:

PG&E needs a new QC since the existing donated TEPCO is not UL certified and unlikely to be soon. Blink (and maybe others) should have their UL certification this month (September 2011). Blink is having trouble finding locations for their 20 "free" DC chargers allocated to the 9 bay area counties. AV is allocated 10 free DC chargers per same BAAQMD announcement. It appears to be hard to find locations near a freeway corridor with the 400+ voltage infrastructure and a willing property owner. Vacaville QC has the advantage of good location, 400+ voltage. Maybe PG&E and Vacaville are amenable to some public QC usage here if it can be worked out? Especially since there is public funding available through BAAQMD. Is this too naive? What can be done?

FYI, some of the Quick Charger specs I've seen said they will operate down to 208V 3 phase so it may not need the 400+ volt in all cases. Though having 400+ volt certainly implies there is a lot more power available to the site and the addition of a Quick Charger to such a site will have less costs for supply equipment upgrades. We'll have to check the specs of the units as they receive UL listing.

We should refrain from publicly exposing those who have attempted to deploy Quick Charging and not succeeded in public availabilty yet. While the thought and irony is tempting, it will do us more harm than good to embarass or fellow stakeholders who are trying to get EVs to market. To wit, PG&E is the only organization in N. CA to even install a Quick Charger, even if it's not publicly available, no one else has even achieved that yet. So we need to help them however we can to get the site available. Replacing the unit with a UL listed unit, seems the most expedient path. And there are no UL listed units yet, but as pointed out by Phoenix, that should finally start to happen this month after being in process for years...

 

[Spies]

FYI, some of the Quick Charger specs I've seen said they will operate down to 208V 3 phase so it may not need the 400+ volt in all cases. Though having 400+ volt certainly implies there is a lot more power available to the site and the addition of a Quick Charger to such a site will have less costs for supply equipment upgrades. We'll have to check the specs of the units as they receive UL listing.

Mr. Smith mentioned this too but pointed out they need a dedicated 200 amp breaker at 208 volt for one unit and in some ways this was harder to find than 100 amp at 400+ volt.

 

[hill]

Love this idea too but our goal should be to have the Vacaville DC working and open to the public. Not ready to give up on this resource yet, especially if it can be saved for the "commons". Some information gleaned from the Green Drive Expo on Sept. 17th:

PG&E needs a new QC since the existing donated TEPCO is not UL certified and unlikely to be soon. .............................. snip

. . . what makes you think this appliance is required to be UL aproved - in order to be lawfull? (hint - it doesn't) This is just a decision the utility company has decided to deploy . . . . whether it's because they don't want to incur the increased use - or some other reason, is simply an unknown.

 

[JPWhite]

. . . what makes you think this appliance is required to be UL aproved - in order to be lawfull? (hint - it doesn't) This is just a decision the utility company has decided to deploy . . . . whether it's because they don't want to incur the increased use - or some other reason, is simply an unknown.

It's not a question of legality, it's question of liability. If the charger harms someone and the unit is subsequently proven to be electrically unsafe, then the utility company would be liable for installing an uncertified device. They simply won't take the risk, they'll leave the decision as to the electrical suitability of a device up to the qualified certification authority, in this case UL.

 

[garygid]

If they need someone to come and take the TEPCO QC unit away, I will be happy to arrange it.

 

[DarkStar]

. . . what makes you think this appliance is required to be UL aproved - in order to be lawfull? (hint - it doesn't) This is just a decision the utility company has decided to deploy . . . . whether it's because they don't want to incur the increased use - or some other reason, is simply an unknown.

It's not a question of legality, it's question of liability. If the charger harms someone and the unit is subsequently proven to be electrically unsafe, then the utility company would be liable for installing an uncertified device. They simply won't take the risk, they'll leave the decision as to the electrical suitability of a device up to the qualified certification authority, in this case UL.

UL listing is not the only option. Lots of products are ETL (Intertek) listed, but not UL.

 

[EVDrive]

If they need someone to come and take the TEPCO QC unit away, I will be happy to arrange it.

Haha, nice! Maybe you would let me use it.

 

[EVDrive]

As far as where to put the DC fast chargers in the bay Area, I think Bart stations would be a great place as they have high voltage and plenty of parking spaces. Plus Bart is a public entity. No PG&E BS.

 

[palmermd]

As far as where to put the DC fast chargers in the bay Area, I think Bart stations would be a great place as they have high voltage and plenty of parking spaces. Plus Bart is a public entity. No PG&E BS.

BART is an excellent place for L1 and L2. Charge slowly while you are parked all day off at work. The question is if you are taking public transit, how far was your drive to get there. I suspect that most BART users drive under 20 miles to get to the station. The charge stations are not needed in that case.

I have an unusual case of a 55 mile drive to the nearest BART station, so I would love to see some L2 charge stations at the Dublin/Pleasanton station.

As far as locating a DCQC station at a BART station, that would be fine, but not in a parking space. Only a stop and go need.

 

[Phoenix]

Brian's call conveyed mostly the same information. I also learned some disappointing news from him... the grants, including Ecotality's EV Project to install more public chargers, all require some kind of local matching funds. Brian told me that it was very unlikely that Vacaville will put up any general fund money to upgrade to J1772's or to get the DC L3 charger online for the public. Given the recession, this is an unlikely scenario for most small to mid-sized cities in California. I am guessing that it will take 10 years before we have any significant number of public chargers on our highways. That's a reality I didn't want to face, but given the cost of installation, the lack of awareness, and the low numbers of EVs on the road at this time, that's my guess.

Josh

We could put together a group of EV owners to provide the local matching funds to get the DC Quick Charge online for the public. Anyone know how much of a match the EV Project requires for the commercial DC Quick Chargers?

 

[eMaS]

Please pass this on:

The Vacaville QC will be available on this Saturday (22 October) for Leafs going to the West Sacramento event from 7:30 to 9:30. Please share and don't fight over it.
A PG&E rep will be there.

Vivek from PG&E will be there and it is only open for this time (7:30 to 9:30 am) period. This is still the old Tepco unit and it is temperamental. It will only be available for cars going to the West Sac event.
So please let the cars that want to come up to the event have preference. But maybe hardly anyone shows up, that is a different case - we will see.

 

[smkettner]

At 20 minutes per vehicle they will only accomodate 6 in the two hour period.
It would be interesting if 10 maybe 20 Leafs showed up for a QC

 

[mwalsh]

At 20 minutes per vehicle they will only accomodate 6 in the two hour period.
It would be interesting if 10 maybe 20 Leafs showed up for a QC

Yeah, I agree. I think it needs something more organized than saying, "it's going to be available, come charge". It would be best to have people sign-up online and have that be the place where you have to deal with any "first come, first served" disputes.

 

[earther]

I have an unusual case of a 55 mile drive to the nearest BART station, so I would love to see some L2 charge stations at the Dublin/Pleasanton station.

not as unusual as you might think. I'm also over 50 miles away from the nearest BART station (Fremont). A L2 station there would be great!

 

[eMaS]

There are a whole bunch of J1772 chargers now available too in Vacaville


95687_4


Leisure Town Road
Park and Ride


Leisure Town Rd & Orange Dr.


Vacaville


Y

95687_5


Leisure Town Center


100 Sequoia Drive


Vacaville


Y

95688_1


Vacaville Regional Transp.
Ctr (VRTC - Park and Ride)


Hickory Ln. And Davis St.


Vacaville

 

[Deleted member 3147]

7:30 to 9:30 AM won't help anyone get home after the event!