As reported in the media, including in The Driven, business groups attempting to install DC charging stations throughout Australia are getting further behind schedule – and much of this is due to grid connection restraints.
It’s not a shortage of power over the whole grid averaged out over 24 hours, 7 days a week, but a shortage of peak power available at individual sites when 1 or more DC fast chargers are required.
Two paths can be taken here. One is the path of excuses, finger pointing, passing the buck and negativity, the other is to find some low cost short term solutions to shorten the gap between DC chargers available and DC chargers required.
The best way to do this is make far better use of the charging locations already commissioned.
Address reliability of DC chargers
Those responsible for the DC chargers already installed must do everything possible to improve the reliability and repair times.
At the moment reliability is poor and repair times are atrocious, and this is not attributed to one charging equipment maker or one charging business. It’s a widespread problem.
What’s the point in going through all the hard work and negotiations of getting a grid connection approved, spending potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars then having an expensive DC charger blocking up that valuable site because it’s broken for weeks or even months.
If these grid connected sites are so hard to find having a DC charger not paying its way is a poor business decision
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Education
A DC charger may be a good business decision when it’s delivering as close to its peak power as possible 24/7.
An EV that is charging at close to peak power could be a profitable customer, an EV charging beyond 80% goes from a potentially profitable customer to a tenant paying lower rent, and when they go past 90% – when the charging speed slows rapidly – the same customer is paying 1/3 rent.
No doubt there’s a few EVs that need to charge past 80% on long trips, but they are few and far between.
Is the solution to increase charging costs for those going above 80 or 90%? No, because that punishes the less than 1% of EV owners that genuinely need a high state of charge. A better solution would be incentives for good behaviour, maybe “80%” club members get a discount after 5 charge sessions that don’t go above 80%?
It can be done, and when it comes to saving money no one spots a discount faster than an EV owner.
Encourage AC charging for locals
Each AC charger can only deliver approximately 4 times less power than a 50kW DC charger, or 8 to 12 times less power than a 150kW DC charger, but it has multiple advantages over DC charging.
AC installations are not held up by grid connection restraints as often as DC because multiple small bites spread across an area are better than one big one at a single site, installation costs are vastly lower, and currently AC charging equipment is proving to be far more reliable than DC fast chargers.
Many EV drivers that are currently using DC charging for local driving would be happy to make use of AC charging that has a far lower price per kWh. I can’t see it being difficult for a charging app to promote a lower cost AC charger nearby to a historically busy DC charger.
Personally, I believe public charging infrastructure on average across Australia is more than a year behind what is necessary for the number of EVs on the roads, I can only see that gap widening unless those in a position to improve the charging infrastructure look past the excuses and see the blatantly obvious.
Good explanation of some issues. I agree AC charging for locals / overnight travellers is a great alternative for everyone. Public car parks should all offer AC charge bays at a multiple of the parking price at a fair price.
For workplace parking, charging should be free or a cost recovery basis.
In well serviced energy areas, public car parks or street parking chargers should start at 5% of local parking bays and double as demand doubles. The pricing in these public facilities should charge sufficient to provide an energy supply 10% margin whether charging takes place or not for dedicated bays.
Property owners or energy managers should have the option of short outages to manage peak demand.
In remote locations, especially where service locations are an hour or more apart, if there is a DC charge business there should be sufficient public parking spaces dedicated to AC charging. Otherwise small business or public dedicated AC parking bays should be available to meet overnight or travellers demand with a fair price.
We could load balance DC fast chargers to the overall capacity of the local grid infrastructure. It would also address the problem of existing providers monopolising the availailable distribution capacity in an area.
I have seen this done with 1 charger spread over two vehicles. Does tech do this across multiple chargers. A 100kWh battery would also make a significant difference to busy times.
An AC charger can add nearly 80km of range in an hour based on 11kW max of most EVs.That is doable where DC chargers nearby are queued or faulty. It’s also where the 80% – 100% should be done. Hay in regional NSW, for example has 3 AC plugs that are free next to a known faulty NRMA 50kW charger, although that town now has 6 Tesla SCs.
Curb side DC charging and multiple AC chargers are not even close to what is required in regional towns and capital cities, especially where apartments are.
There needs to be some personal responsibility. I previously charged exclusively on solar, but when I moved to an apartment I had a 15 amp powerpoint installed (with a lockable isolator to prevent electricity theft). I now charge very successfully in the middle of the day in my apartment parking space.
55kM for a model S
50km for an ioniq5,
40km for a model X
Adequate EV charging has always been a built-environment task. Most cars are parked unutilised 95%+ of their economic life and should be connected to the grid for charging (and perhaps discharging, another topic) in readiness for next use. That means off-street charging at home or charging in public parking areas and work locations. Sure, DC rapid chargers are needed for mid-journey top-up, but will never satisfy the large scale requirement for EV charging.
The lack of power to support evs
A fast charger promised for the town of Emerald in QLD 2 years ago still says “coming soon”. Mind you Emerald is a coal mining town and Central Highlands Regional Council has not been very helpful at all.
Collie in WA was the same – several years ago the council stated that Collie was going to stay a coal town, none of this renewables hub nonsense even if the government was handing out free dollars (refused at the time) to set up alternative industries to mining.
Forward to a couple of years later, the coal is running out, the power stations are about to close, the government got the Collie council to accept free cash and Collie is emerging as a renewable energy hub and has a booming mountain biking and trail hiking industry.
Emerald could do it too f they stopped tugging the forelock to the Great Joe BJ every morning.
Refusing to see what’s in front of you is not new.
Collie will no doubt take extreme pride in its ability to predict the past.
What is the power requirement for a typical multi-stand DC charger installation? I am trying to get a feel for how expensive it would be to add a few charging stands to a service station forecourt. If the local distribution supply is adequate, what is ‘adequate’.
A suburban shopping strip would have several MW of power capability. Could this be used for EV DC charging without turning the lights out or do the chargers have to be right next to a 33kV transformer?
Gundagai has a 500kVA transformer on a pole and ~80kW solar on an adjoining building.
There are heaps of chargers there and if with lots of others they can be slowed down.
A limited credit connection can be fine if there is a battery onsite. Lots like this in china, particularly at the 600kW sites
(Not a typo) They build for tomorrow not last week
I’ve been on the case of the Queensland Government who has co funded 46 fast charging stations throughout Regional Queensland. They promised they would be delivered by the end of 2024. According to their website only one site of 46 has been delivered.