@@KyleConnerthis is over sized for private use but I like the idea of storing electricity, it would allow me to store solar power when I’m away during the day instead of selling it to the utility for about a penny per kWh and buy it back when it’s much more expensive.
@@tomm5936 As utility grade/size batteries get cheaper this mode is probably going to become more popular as a 100k battery will pay for itself fairly quickly once you can save 5-10k on demand charges each month. Same as when solar canopies are more common
@@Lor-dn1vzdo you mean these units will be set up for public use or they will be for privates too? I was thinking about my private use. Electricity prices are by the hour where I live in Europe and I regularly see 50 cents and even can be as high as a dollar (once/year). When we have excess solar we only get a cent or two in the summer. If I could store it and charge my car at night and send power to the house too it would be fantastic.
I feel like you could use these for an in city off grid power with solar for a home and for the vehicle. With being connected to the grid the power cost will always go up if you can go off grid you lock in that power price. home battery first Vehicle charge second
I saw a video from Freewire that said using this kind of charger they were able to do a full install in 12 days start to finish for a customer. The customer called for information, got the PO a day later, they shipped the charger to the site and then when it arrived it was maybe 2 days to remove the old L2 chargers, pull new wire from the panel, install it and turned it on. Start to finish for a traditional DC charger can be 18-24 months for permitting, transformer placement, site work, utility hookups and working with the local power company to deal with the surge power requirements. Also saw a connivance store in Portland OR put one of these in and said during power outages they can switch the panel and run the store from the battery bank in the charger for a day or longer, although EV charging will be disabled. These seem to be a great idea, reduce utility loads, provide backup power and hasten charger installs. Only downside is they won't work well for very high traffic areas where the chargers are in constant use.
@32:00 Most CPOs in Norway charge more for the 150kW+ chargers than the old 50kW ones if they have both. But more and more of the old 50kW ones are replaced by ABB Terra 360kW, Delta 200kW and Alpitronic 300kW. And some CPOs use Kempower.
Net Zero has it right. Connected to the grid but also with solar panels and batteries for minimum effect on the grid. The latest Supercharger station in Kern, California with 167 chargers, has solar panels and Megapacks to minimized the strain on the grid. Some are saying there will be a field of solar panels next to it. This is indeed the future of EV charging.
Looking forward to the day Kyle runs a DC fast charge test with the Xcharge unit on the coldest day of the year. Should be interesting to see how the unit handles preconditioning itself, and how much energy will be available on those blistering cold days.
Freewire has several of this type charger in central and N Texas. I’ve used a couple of times on trips to casino in Oklahoma while driving my Lightning. Always worked, decent speed. In the middle of charging deserts so were much appreciated. The cheap electric upgrade relative to standard DCFC electricity requirements were probably the only reason these were feasible to install. I bet these become much more commonly installed at remote locations.
I like how Kyle uses the word WE with regard to opening the crates. While Alyssa does all the “heavy lifting”, Kyle just continues to chat and offer advice/criticism. 😮 (Meanwhile, it’s 11 o’clock at night and he’s tired.)
Where I live, we often drive thru the Navajo Nation areas or the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute regions and even the Hopi tribal section. These areas are beautiful to look at but they are almost void of any charging infrastructure, especially DCFC. The city of Kayenta AZ is on Tesla's Supercharger voting list but down quite a way from getting anything soon. It seems that the Xcharge battery buffered systems might be ideal for these rural and relatively little traveled areas. The attention given to support for EVs in many Native American Tribal nations and reservations is woefully inadequate. I hope as more reliable competition than EA comes up to speed, they will move quickly into these underserved areas, bringing much needed revenue both direct and indirect as tourism routes for EV owners. Nice work on digging into the whole charging infrastructure market. Cheers and safe driving.
The XCharge unit is quite interesting. Last year I saw the first similar type of unit installed at a BP gas station just outside the north-eastern edge of London, UK. BP have been putting single units of these in some of their directly owned forecourts. They look a little like the Freewire ones, a big square box with two CCS2 cables sharing 150kW, a giant screen and battery [I think LFP] just under 200kWh but the odd thing is the backplate featured VW branding on it. The power connection was somewhere between 33kW and 22kW for charging the battery, presumably limited by a small grid connection although I watched the groundworks going in which were remarkably substantial for just 33kW. Essentially 33kW [or perhaps it's 22kW, both numbers were on the backplate] would only support 25% evenly spread occupancy. Half-a-dozen charges of around 50kWh would suck the battery dry in 2 hours [very roughly]. How much do you think they are paying for the battery? $125/kWh would make it a $25,000 investment, not chicken feed. [Oh, and when I tried it after months before it was powered up - it did work. I had an ID3 taxi driver on the other cable but it wouldn't end my charge. The call centre couldn't either and reset the whole unit killing the ID3's charge - I did ask him if it was ok. It didn't come back online and I had to apologise to the cab driver who had to finish elsewhere!]
Find it funny that this is basically a server rack for in a datacenter retrofitted for charging. The door lock lever system i have used so many times in the datacenter.
15:55 LiFePO4 is the true chemistry name for LFP, or said out loud: lithium (Li) iron (Fe) phosphate(PO4). You'll still occasionally see it referenced as that, but LFP won out in common usage for obvious reasons.
PLC hardware is 9/10 times 24V based. that's the industry standard. Because unless you have infinite money to do *everything* yourself, you're not going to defy industry standards. Aboard ships for example the signal wires sometimes run at 2KV to be able to push power to a solenoid from the PLC across a 75M long wire. So that's a place where they'd build everything themselves.
@@kiddy1992 could be down to 24v. Or it could have a variety of taps (240, 120, 24, 12v). I guess my point was it's there to run ancillary equipment and isn't in the power delivery/charging chain.
This is so interesting, please show us the full permitting and other processes. How much does this unit actually cost without installation which of course depends on site.
It will be very interesting to see what happens when these different types of units are used by the public under real conditions. Finding out why chargers only last a month or so before breaking down and why, and how difficult it is to get repairs and/or parts. No one has ever done anything like this and reported to the public what they have found. Do any of these units exist in the US anywhere? Have any others actually been installed anywhere?
No matter how often you tell people and explain it to them, most can't understand that most EV charging stations will be powered by solar and battery megapacks with little to no grid required. Some locations are already starting with it. This will allow charging networks to charge extremely low electricity rates to their customers, since it will be almost 100% profit for them once the initial costs are recouped. That's especially so for a company like Tesla that manufactures their own batteries, builds their own megapacks and owns their own solar company.
As somebody who wants to have a house battery system, I feel it would be nice to dc (not too fast) charge from my house battery to the car and possibly vice versa. Granted the efficiency isn’t perfect but having these energy dense storage pools would be nice
SolarEdge has a Bi-directional DC coupled EV charger that is supposed to be out this year. I've heard both 12kW and 25kW thrown around, but nothing confirmed on a spec sheet yet. Point Guard Energy is the only other one I've heard of that should also have Bi-directional DC coupled EV charging available soon.
A dealership in my town got a 150kW charger but sadly it has a 200amp cable so I only get 70-75kW on my standard range Mustang Mach-E :( On the bright side a Ford dealership near where I work is getting fast chargers with 300amp cables so I should be able to get full speeds there. Standard range Mustang Mach-E can charge up to 115kW (118kW is what I've seen in the real world).
Would be really cool to combine this with some kind of kempower-like thing ‒ centralized conversion, battery and all that, but have many more than just 2 cables for that.
Kyle good basic level overview vid. Nice to get the female input, us males can disappear up our own sometimes the balancing countervalance is appreciated. Like Francie's input it is a plus
16:00 / 18:25 - LiFeO4 - interesting. A Lithium Iron Phosphate should be LiFePO4. Missing the P (Phosphorous) would imply it's Lithium Ferrate, which AFAIK isn't a thing for batteries. I'm guessing they left off the P accidentally? Which would be odd, you'd think battery shipping regulations would insist they have to list it properly.
Been a long-time viewer...love the channel. Seeing all this CSU Powerhouse stuff has inspired my own inner "energy nerd" to comment for the first time. (Sorry for the length but hope you read/respond.) Really glad to hear you speak about the utility tariff issues at 28:45--notably the kW peak demand vs. time-of-use kWh supply charges. Have you guys ever done vids about how exactly large DCFC installations (e.g. Tesla Superchargers, Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint, etc.) design their utility interconnections or otherwise negotiate their rates/billing tariffs with local utility cos.? Are they subject to conventional C&I time-of-use and peak kW demand tariffs (like the CSU Powerhouse account)? Or are most DCFC installers lobbying for tariffs more customized to EV charging hub accounts? I'd be really curious to see an Out of Spec series on that. Maybe even with some comparison episodes on how DCFC installers & utilities in the EU have handled this, perhaps when you go back over to Germany or Scandinavia. Having been a pioneer of "community storage" in the Northeast (picture Megapack arrays up to 5,000 kW/20,000 kWh nameplate, sometimes with co-located PV), the utility interconnection studies and then the grid upgrades themselves are typically the single biggest time suck & can often be one of the biggest ticket items in project capex. Granted, T&D engineers & DER experts at most utilities here will tell you that dropping a new 3,000-5,000 kW bidirectional account in a parking lot is no trivial feat; it's like "10 supermarkets falling out of the sky," as one distribution engineer put it. But that's effectively what we're looking to do all across the US grid every time a new DCFC hub goes in. (If Out of Spec could ferret out a few real-world load profiles, say 15- or 30-min interval kWh meter data, along with the designated tariffs and utility delivery/commodity supply bills for a few Supercharger or EA or EVgo hubs in regulated vs. deregulated markets, that would be an amazing vid series!) It's interesting to see DCFC OEMs like XCharge and Freewire integrating 150-200 kWh BESS into their charging stations; they seem keenly aware that using onboard BESS to time-shift peak DCFC loads to off peak demand hours may well be key to the US grid's ability to handle mass EV adoption, at least in near- to mid-term. Would be interested to see if Out of Spec could spotlight any DCFC installations in US that are alternatively using utility-scale BESS (e.g. Tesla Megapacks or BYD Cube Pros) to help manage kW demand charges at, say, a master metered DCFC account (rather than XCharge or Freewire-style, integrated charger by charger). Closest I've seen to this, I think, are the first Gridserve Forecourts in UK featured on Fully Charged (equally entertaining/educational...worth a look if you've not seen yet).
Have you considered branching into personal solar canopies that can be used to charger an EV parked under that. Also, what is Tesla doing to routinely start installing solar generation at their supercharger sites so that they don't depend on the grid? They apparently have a few locations with this out west.
Kyle, did you consider talking to the university about access to a public parking lot and the ability to hookup multiple Fast Chargers at the same time? Sounds like a cost-effective solution to testing multiple different units.
26:40 Even as a rating system, I don't really like the idea of listing the max potential peak. I suppose a Lucid could theoretically get close to 200 kW on this unit, but realistically, it would end up closer to 180 kW (with 900 V charging). Shell is guilty of this a lot right now with their "200 kW" chargers that are actually 200 kW split across two dispensers (so really just 100 kW that can only output 70-80 kW to most EVs). I will disagree slightly, though, in that I think there's still a place for 200 A cables, but that's really just at "destination" DC chargers where the host business expects people to spend at least 45 minutes to 1 hour. We're going to start losing DC hosting opportunities with businesses like retail centers, malls, sit-down restaurants, and even grocery stores if a majority of people are looking for 15-minute charge ups. I'm already seeing that at many EA and Supercharger locations where people literally never leave their vehicle in order to patronize the host business.
Nooooo! The battery buffer is my idea! 😊 A buffer will temper the load drawn from the utility. A solar supplement tempers that draw even further (keeping the battery charged). With the right system configuration the utility would never notice a heavy demand from the charging station. The charger would draw its peak demand from the battery. When it comes to idle fees you can get around any potential legislation by exponentially charging a fee when the load gets too LOW. Under 1kw charging rate? $5.00 per kWh vs $0.40, etc. So, not an idle fee per se but an incentive to get off the charger now that the pack is charged up. (maybe a five minute grace period)
Since most vehicles on the road are 400V I would say the best way to label chargers is based on what a 400V car would get and if an 800V car shows up and gets more well then that's a nice surprise
I am surprised the fan is on the exhaust side only because that will create a slight negative pressure and draw in any moisture and dust through any bad joints and seals .
Yeah, they probably do it that way because exhausting heat reight into your costumer isn't a great option, but it doesn't make a lot of sense from that point of view.
Maybe you can specify both: 800V: 200kW 400V: 100kW I suspect if you have an 800V vehicle, limited to 125A, it may be difficult to find an 800V charger to charge at your full rate. Edit: 30F "extreme" (to be fair it NEVER gets to 100F where I live.)
Question on the XCharge, If I roll up to the charger and the battery pack in the charger is low will the charger tell me how long I can expect high power charging before the chargers pack is depleted ? If I roll up on the charger and the battery pack is depleted will the charger tell me it will charge at level 2 charging speeds?
Kyle you are not exactly right about demand charges. In your personal case I agree, that demand charge is very painful, but if you are running a charge site like Tesla that stays busy a high percentage of the time than the demand charge becomes trivial.
Would be interesting to see how much loss is there with the battery as a buffer, it depends on the quality of the AC/DC/DC inverters. Up to 20% loss from into the car (all losses combined) seem plausible, right ?
Out of Spec Laboratories shaping up nicely. Epic!
With a 200kWh buffer, you can install this in a home and just trickle charge it between chargings :-)
Perfect for topping up after a 5 mile commute 😂
@@KyleConnerthis is over sized for private use but I like the idea of storing electricity, it would allow me to store solar power when I’m away during the day instead of selling it to the utility for about a penny per kWh and buy it back when it’s much more expensive.
@@tomm5936 As utility grade/size batteries get cheaper this mode is probably going to become more popular as a 100k battery will pay for itself fairly quickly once you can save 5-10k on demand charges each month. Same as when solar canopies are more common
@@Lor-dn1vzdo you mean these units will be set up for public use or they will be for privates too? I was thinking about my private use. Electricity prices are by the hour where I live in Europe and I regularly see 50 cents and even can be as high as a dollar (once/year). When we have excess solar we only get a cent or two in the summer. If I could store it and charge my car at night and send power to the house too it would be fantastic.
I feel like you could use these for an in city off grid power with solar for a home and for the vehicle. With being connected to the grid the power cost will always go up if you can go off grid you lock in that power price.
home battery first
Vehicle charge second
Thanks for creating such awesome content! 🎉
At 37:43 with the broken pliers, Harbor Freight has a lifetime warranty on the Pittsburgh Hand Tools. Bring them back for a free replacement.
Alyssa leg pressing the panel out of Kyle’s way😂
Alyssa Rocks!!
🍑
6 feet of pure muscle@@OlsenAaron
Finally!! Been impatiently waiting for this.
Didn’t expect to see a Donk in this video 😮😅
I saw a video from Freewire that said using this kind of charger they were able to do a full install in 12 days start to finish for a customer. The customer called for information, got the PO a day later, they shipped the charger to the site and then when it arrived it was maybe 2 days to remove the old L2 chargers, pull new wire from the panel, install it and turned it on. Start to finish for a traditional DC charger can be 18-24 months for permitting, transformer placement, site work, utility hookups and working with the local power company to deal with the surge power requirements. Also saw a connivance store in Portland OR put one of these in and said during power outages they can switch the panel and run the store from the battery bank in the charger for a day or longer, although EV charging will be disabled.
These seem to be a great idea, reduce utility loads, provide backup power and hasten charger installs. Only downside is they won't work well for very high traffic areas where the chargers are in constant use.
it's able to charge a F150 lightning at 125Kw, my polestar2 at 90kw at peak, at 78kw most the time in BC Canada.
@@ORAWedding I tried one on our Ioniq 5 but 400V chargers won't get over 100kw on these cars.
Great video and very through! Thanks Kyle and Alyssa. Can't wait to see these tested.
How does the rain water not get inside when cooling is active ??
@32:00 Most CPOs in Norway charge more for the 150kW+ chargers than the old 50kW ones if they have both.
But more and more of the old 50kW ones are replaced by ABB Terra 360kW, Delta 200kW and Alpitronic 300kW. And some CPOs use Kempower.
+1 for transparency and disclosure!
Net Zero has it right. Connected to the grid but also with solar panels and batteries for minimum effect on the grid. The latest Supercharger station in Kern, California with 167 chargers, has solar panels and Megapacks to minimized the strain on the grid. Some are saying there will be a field of solar panels next to it. This is indeed the future of EV charging.
Need updates on this and the other charger!
Looking forward to the day Kyle runs a DC fast charge test with the Xcharge unit on the coldest day of the year. Should be interesting to see how the unit handles preconditioning itself, and how much energy will be available on those blistering cold days.
Lol @ Kyle filming and reading labels while Alyssa unboxes the 8 foot crates.
Didn't read the tip indicator I guess...
This is so educational that I am all for it. I really can't wait for you to complete your installs and show the whole process.
I'm a sophomore at CSU! I'd love to come check everything out and lend a hand if needed!
This sounds amazing in super remote locations or places with limited electricity demand/regulations. Love it!
Freewire has several of this type charger in central and N Texas. I’ve used a couple of times on trips to casino in Oklahoma while driving my Lightning. Always worked, decent speed. In the middle of charging deserts so were much appreciated. The cheap electric upgrade relative to standard DCFC electricity requirements were probably the only reason these were feasible to install. I bet these become much more commonly installed at remote locations.
I like how Kyle uses the word WE with regard to opening the crates. While Alyssa does all the “heavy lifting”, Kyle just continues to chat and offer advice/criticism. 😮
(Meanwhile, it’s 11 o’clock at night and he’s tired.)
He’s a man of numbers not chivalry.
This is so cool, love that fact that you'll have the option back feed the building.
This is exciting….get wait to see install vids.
So excited, this will be epically good to watch
Where I live, we often drive thru the Navajo Nation areas or the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute regions and even the Hopi tribal section. These areas are beautiful to look at but they are almost void of any charging infrastructure, especially DCFC. The city of Kayenta AZ is on Tesla's Supercharger voting list but down quite a way from getting anything soon. It seems that the Xcharge battery buffered systems might be ideal for these rural and relatively little traveled areas. The attention given to support for EVs in many Native American Tribal nations and reservations is woefully inadequate. I hope as more reliable competition than EA comes up to speed, they will move quickly into these underserved areas, bringing much needed revenue both direct and indirect as tourism routes for EV owners. Nice work on digging into the whole charging infrastructure market. Cheers and safe driving.
Looking forward to installing and testing this beautiful equipment out front. I live 2 miles away!
Great stuff, looking forward to seeing it up and running.
Nice episode of "What's Inside the Box" 🙂
The XCharge unit is quite interesting. Last year I saw the first similar type of unit installed at a BP gas station just outside the north-eastern edge of London, UK.
BP have been putting single units of these in some of their directly owned forecourts. They look a little like the Freewire ones, a big square box with two CCS2 cables sharing 150kW, a giant screen and battery [I think LFP] just under 200kWh but the odd thing is the backplate featured VW branding on it.
The power connection was somewhere between 33kW and 22kW for charging the battery, presumably limited by a small grid connection although I watched the groundworks going in which were remarkably substantial for just 33kW.
Essentially 33kW [or perhaps it's 22kW, both numbers were on the backplate] would only support 25% evenly spread occupancy. Half-a-dozen charges of around 50kWh would suck the battery dry in 2 hours [very roughly].
How much do you think they are paying for the battery? $125/kWh would make it a $25,000 investment, not chicken feed.
[Oh, and when I tried it after months before it was powered up - it did work. I had an ID3 taxi driver on the other cable but it wouldn't end my charge. The call centre couldn't either and reset the whole unit killing the ID3's charge - I did ask him if it was ok. It didn't come back online and I had to apologise to the cab driver who had to finish elsewhere!]
Find it funny that this is basically a server rack for in a datacenter retrofitted for charging. The door lock lever system i have used so many times in the datacenter.
Think they will lend us one for a Teardown!?
Very cool! I thought Freewire was the only player in the battery DCFC game. Super interested in the XCharge unit.
Wow. You opened the box well.
I haven't road tripped through your area yet, but if I do, I'll be sure to use it!
15:55 LiFePO4 is the true chemistry name for LFP, or said out loud: lithium (Li) iron (Fe) phosphate(PO4). You'll still occasionally see it referenced as that, but LFP won out in common usage for obvious reasons.
Looking forward to seeing this progress!
Thanks for sharing, Kyle. Looking forward to the "Out of Spec Gridserve Forecourt Charging Hub West." 🙂
Based on the size, im guessing the transformer is to convert 480v to provide 120v to all the control electronics.
PLC hardware is 9/10 times 24V based. that's the industry standard. Because unless you have infinite money to do *everything* yourself, you're not going to defy industry standards. Aboard ships for example the signal wires sometimes run at 2KV to be able to push power to a solenoid from the PLC across a 75M long wire. So that's a place where they'd build everything themselves.
@@kiddy1992 could be down to 24v. Or it could have a variety of taps (240, 120, 24, 12v).
I guess my point was it's there to run ancillary equipment and isn't in the power delivery/charging chain.
Really looking forward to this series.
Insane! Love it!!
if these could be refilled off solar these could be home installs. this could be a utility work around and give you DC fast charging at home.
Kyle doing the heavy lifting… 😂
The new TH-cam icons look great! 👍
This is so interesting, please show us the full permitting and other processes. How much does this unit actually cost without installation which of course depends on site.
Absolutely
@@KyleConner epic project 👍
This is awesome! Thanks for the videos!
It will be very interesting to see what happens when these different types of units are used by the public under real conditions. Finding out why chargers only last a month or so before breaking down and why, and how difficult it is to get repairs and/or parts. No one has ever done anything like this and reported to the public what they have found. Do any of these units exist in the US anywhere? Have any others actually been installed anywhere?
No matter how often you tell people and explain it to them, most can't understand that most EV charging stations will be powered by solar and battery megapacks with little to no grid required. Some locations are already starting with it. This will allow charging networks to charge extremely low electricity rates to their customers, since it will be almost 100% profit for them once the initial costs are recouped.
That's especially so for a company like Tesla that manufactures their own batteries, builds their own megapacks and owns their own solar company.
Great News!
Ryobi is Great. You’re good Bro.
As somebody who wants to have a house battery system, I feel it would be nice to dc (not too fast) charge from my house battery to the car and possibly vice versa. Granted the efficiency isn’t perfect but having these energy dense storage pools would be nice
SolarEdge has a Bi-directional DC coupled EV charger that is supposed to be out this year. I've heard both 12kW and 25kW thrown around, but nothing confirmed on a spec sheet yet.
Point Guard Energy is the only other one I've heard of that should also have Bi-directional DC coupled EV charging available soon.
What if one of them burns you building down?
A dealership in my town got a 150kW charger but sadly it has a 200amp cable so I only get 70-75kW on my standard range Mustang Mach-E :( On the bright side a Ford dealership near where I work is getting fast chargers with 300amp cables so I should be able to get full speeds there. Standard range Mustang Mach-E can charge up to 115kW (118kW is what I've seen in the real world).
46:18 I'm no fire marshall but is the bottle of gear oil right next to the electrical panel really a good idea?
Amazing project. No one else can do this!
Please review the indoor EA charging station in California .
Would be really cool to combine this with some kind of kempower-like thing ‒ centralized conversion, battery and all that, but have many more than just 2 cables for that.
Looking forward to the installation videos.
Kyle good basic level overview vid. Nice to get the female input, us males can disappear up our own sometimes the balancing countervalance is appreciated. Like Francie's input it is a plus
50 to 100 kw charger at a business or even a home would be just awesome.
Oh, I once was in Fort Colins. I think it was in 2006. First and last time I went over into the US from Germany🙂
Watching Kyle nerd out over a new charger is always hilarious. 😂
16:00 / 18:25 - LiFeO4 - interesting. A Lithium Iron Phosphate should be LiFePO4. Missing the P (Phosphorous) would imply it's Lithium Ferrate, which AFAIK isn't a thing for batteries. I'm guessing they left off the P accidentally? Which would be odd, you'd think battery shipping regulations would insist they have to list it properly.
Not biased at all but you should get in touch with Lincoln Electric to try and get your hands on one of the new Velion chargers.
What’s the link for the workbench and toolbox?
I googled it and the rolling workbench alone is $1000! Would love to know where to get it for $200.
Fantastic. Definitely not a waste of time. This is the future.
I wish there was more ability to put these in residential
My guess is that the transformer is an isolation transformer. Some jurisdictions require them for certain high powered equipment.
Been a long-time viewer...love the channel. Seeing all this CSU Powerhouse stuff has inspired my own inner "energy nerd" to comment for the first time. (Sorry for the length but hope you read/respond.) Really glad to hear you speak about the utility tariff issues at 28:45--notably the kW peak demand vs. time-of-use kWh supply charges.
Have you guys ever done vids about how exactly large DCFC installations (e.g. Tesla Superchargers, Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint, etc.) design their utility interconnections or otherwise negotiate their rates/billing tariffs with local utility cos.? Are they subject to conventional C&I time-of-use and peak kW demand tariffs (like the CSU Powerhouse account)? Or are most DCFC installers lobbying for tariffs more customized to EV charging hub accounts? I'd be really curious to see an Out of Spec series on that. Maybe even with some comparison episodes on how DCFC installers & utilities in the EU have handled this, perhaps when you go back over to Germany or Scandinavia.
Having been a pioneer of "community storage" in the Northeast (picture Megapack arrays up to 5,000 kW/20,000 kWh nameplate, sometimes with co-located PV), the utility interconnection studies and then the grid upgrades themselves are typically the single biggest time suck & can often be one of the biggest ticket items in project capex. Granted, T&D engineers & DER experts at most utilities here will tell you that dropping a new 3,000-5,000 kW bidirectional account in a parking lot is no trivial feat; it's like "10 supermarkets falling out of the sky," as one distribution engineer put it. But that's effectively what we're looking to do all across the US grid every time a new DCFC hub goes in. (If Out of Spec could ferret out a few real-world load profiles, say 15- or 30-min interval kWh meter data, along with the designated tariffs and utility delivery/commodity supply bills for a few Supercharger or EA or EVgo hubs in regulated vs. deregulated markets, that would be an amazing vid series!)
It's interesting to see DCFC OEMs like XCharge and Freewire integrating 150-200 kWh BESS into their charging stations; they seem keenly aware that using onboard BESS to time-shift peak DCFC loads to off peak demand hours may well be key to the US grid's ability to handle mass EV adoption, at least in near- to mid-term. Would be interested to see if Out of Spec could spotlight any DCFC installations in US that are alternatively using utility-scale BESS (e.g. Tesla Megapacks or BYD Cube Pros) to help manage kW demand charges at, say, a master metered DCFC account (rather than XCharge or Freewire-style, integrated charger by charger). Closest I've seen to this, I think, are the first Gridserve Forecourts in UK featured on Fully Charged (equally entertaining/educational...worth a look if you've not seen yet).
Have you considered branching into personal solar canopies that can be used to charger an EV parked under that. Also, what is Tesla doing to routinely start installing solar generation at their supercharger sites so that they don't depend on the grid? They apparently have a few locations with this out west.
Kyle, did you consider talking to the university about access to a public parking lot and the ability to hookup multiple Fast Chargers at the same time? Sounds like a cost-effective solution to testing multiple different units.
Having a 200kwh buffer allows places that dont have high enough power source to still offer high speed charging
Measurement Canada has already concluded per kWh charging will be the standard. No idea when it will all kick in though.
Hey Kyle, I'm in Fort Collins and would love to help! Ioniq 5 owner. I think your chargers will be the fastest in town.
It will be interesting to see how these work in snowy areas with those fan systems.
Wow this is super exciting 👍💪😉
26:40 Even as a rating system, I don't really like the idea of listing the max potential peak. I suppose a Lucid could theoretically get close to 200 kW on this unit, but realistically, it would end up closer to 180 kW (with 900 V charging). Shell is guilty of this a lot right now with their "200 kW" chargers that are actually 200 kW split across two dispensers (so really just 100 kW that can only output 70-80 kW to most EVs).
I will disagree slightly, though, in that I think there's still a place for 200 A cables, but that's really just at "destination" DC chargers where the host business expects people to spend at least 45 minutes to 1 hour. We're going to start losing DC hosting opportunities with businesses like retail centers, malls, sit-down restaurants, and even grocery stores if a majority of people are looking for 15-minute charge ups. I'm already seeing that at many EA and Supercharger locations where people literally never leave their vehicle in order to patronize the host business.
Why doesn't the Powerhouse have a Megapack XL?
Nooooo! The battery buffer is my idea! 😊
A buffer will temper the load drawn from the utility. A solar supplement tempers that draw even further (keeping the battery charged). With the right system configuration the utility would never notice a heavy demand from the charging station. The charger would draw its peak demand from the battery.
When it comes to idle fees you can get around any potential legislation by exponentially charging a fee when the load gets too LOW. Under 1kw charging rate? $5.00 per kWh vs $0.40, etc. So, not an idle fee per se but an incentive to get off the charger now that the pack is charged up. (maybe a five minute grace period)
The Office reference 🤙🏽
I'd be curious what the cost is to keep that LFP battery in the proper temperature range in the winter and summer
Skip the Pittsburgh pliers, the Quinns are the way to go at HF
Since most vehicles on the road are 400V I would say the best way to label chargers is based on what a 400V car would get and if an 800V car shows up and gets more well then that's a nice surprise
Can you elaborate on your businesses relationship with CSU? Are you renting space from them or something?
Good bit of kit
I am surprised the fan is on the exhaust side only because that will create a slight negative pressure and draw in any moisture and dust through any bad joints and seals .
Yeah, they probably do it that way because exhausting heat reight into your costumer isn't a great option, but it doesn't make a lot of sense from that point of view.
Maybe you can specify both:
800V: 200kW
400V: 100kW
I suspect if you have an 800V vehicle, limited to 125A, it may be difficult to find an 800V charger to charge at your full rate.
Edit: 30F "extreme" (to be fair it NEVER gets to 100F where I live.)
This is a great idea!
Question on the XCharge, If I roll up to the charger and the battery pack in the charger is low will the charger tell me how long I can expect high power charging before the chargers pack is depleted ? If I roll up on the charger and the battery pack is depleted will the charger tell me it will charge at level 2 charging speeds?
Guy geeks out over cables and access door. Meanwhile wife lies on floor under plywood.
Officially that's his coworker and he's still dating someone else
Fe is iron.
lithium iron phosphate battery
Yes, and the phosphate is indicative of the 4 atoms of oxygen!
Are you going to test these units outside in freezing weather?
Keep seeing that Raffle offer and really tempted to get it but it's only open to US citizens.
Same problem for me
Awesome!!!
How much are these and where can we purchase them?
Thank You . Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Namaste 🙏🏻 😊 🌈 ✌ ☮ ❤
Jamming to Foo Fighters nice!
It's always exciting to get new tools. Are you going to let locals, like myself, try your chargers? 😉
Kyle you are not exactly right about demand charges. In your personal case I agree, that demand charge is very painful, but if you are running a charge site like Tesla that stays busy a high percentage of the time than the demand charge becomes trivial.
What is the device to the left at @36:36 ?
Simply loved the new logo 👍🏽
Would be interesting to see how much loss is there with the battery as a buffer, it depends on the quality of the AC/DC/DC inverters. Up to 20% loss from into the car (all losses combined) seem plausible, right ?
It’s 0.95 to the fourth power. About 85% efficient