Source: ABB
Two high-powered electric car charging dispensers in the Victorian town of Euroa in Australia that were temporarily closed due to a charging cable issue have been cleared for use.
The chargers, which form the first phase of an interstate charging infrastructure being implemented by ChargeFox and funded by the Victorian government, ARENA, Australian Motoring Services, Wilson Transformers and CarSales founder Greg Roebuck, were shut down recently due to a short circuit that occurred at an overseas testing facility.
The 350kW Euroa chargers use the same liquid cooled charging cable made by cable maker Huber+Suhner, and were thus shut off as a safety precaution.
Two 150kW cables and plugs were not affected by the issue and remained open.
The chargers are now again operational, with ChargeFox given the all-clear to reopen the chargers for public use.
“We’ve been given the all clear from the manufacturer, so are resuming normal operations,” the company announced on Twitter.
Multinational automation company ABB, who manufactured the EV chargers, has also issued a statement confirming the safety of the cables in use.
“ABB has received written confirmation from Huber+Suhner, the supplier of liquid cooled cables for high power electric vehicle chargers, that it is safe to resume the operation of chargers using these cables.
“As a precautionary measure, Huber+Suhner recommended on January 26, 2019, that services be suspended on high power electric vehicle chargers (150kW and more) using its liquid cooled cables.
“This followed the identification of a potential issue in a test environment with a pre-production cable. Committed to ensuring highest levels of safety, ABB communicated this recommendation to its customers immediately.
“Extensive testing by Huber+Suhner has since confirmed that there is no risk associated with the series liquid cooled cables deployed with ABB high power electric vehicle charging stations. ABB is communicating this updated information to its customers.
“ABB is committed to ensuring the highest levels of safety for all of its products and solutions,” a spokesperson for ABB wrote in an email.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.
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