New EV Gigahub opens at the NEC

[nigelpugh7]

Lots of news on my feeds about this.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/0...

We know that car park well, as we did a lot of drone work there for the Hilton hotel.

Personally I can’t see 180 charging locations in this aerial picture, but perhaps a lot of them are out of the field of view?

[ChocolateFrog]

Might be wrong but looks like every single space has a charger, not just the blue ones.

[trashbat]

[nigelpugh7]

ChocolateFrog said:

Might be wrong but looks like every single space has a charger, not just the blue ones.

Yes you are exactly correct. All of those parking spaces have a charger.

I just couldn’t add up 180 spaces as mentioned in the news article when looking at that picture even if you count every parking space.

[blank]

Good to see but I read in another article that the grid connection was "only" 6.5MVA. There's 10MW of charging capability so it will only ever be able to run at about 50%. So they've paid for 30 300kW chargers with the expensive power conversion they need, but can only ever utilise half of it.

Unless of course they're all double outlet units, in which case it's really 15 300kW chargers.

This is a great example as to why the "hub and spoke" distribution works much better.


Edit:

Looks like they are double units, so actually 15 300kW or 30 150kW.

Edited by blank on Saturday 9th September 10:25

[Nomme de Plum]

blank said:

Good to see but I read in another article that the grid connection was "only" 6.5MVA. There's 10MW of charging capability so it will only ever be able to run at about 50%. So they've paid for 30 300kW chargers with the expensive power conversion they need, but can only ever utilise half of it.

Unless of course they're all double outlet units, in which case it's really 15 300kW chargers.

This is a great example as to why the "hub and spoke" distribution works much better.

There used to be an availability charge so even if the capacity is not fully utilised the company has to pay for that availability. It is therefore important they mitigate this by not over applying.

What is the likelihood of 100% capacity being required?

If you watch when your EV is charging it often moderates the charge to ensure battery life.

[nigelpugh7]

blank said:

Good to see but I read in another article that the grid connection was "only" 6.5MVA. There's 10MW of charging capability so it will only ever be able to run at about 50%. So they've paid for 30 300kW chargers with the expensive power conversion they need, but can only ever utilise half of it.

Unless of course they're all double outlet units, in which case it's really 15 300kW chargers.

This is a great example as to why the "hub and spoke" distribution works much better.


Edit:

Looks like they are double units, so actually 15 300kW or 30 150kW.

Edited by blank on Saturday 9th September 10:25

I wonder why the max charging capacity is limited?

The NEC main substation is located in the adjacent car park.

Not got any of my own pictures but here’s a street view of the substation.

Perhaps it’s down to costs, assuming it’s National Grid who are the supplier, and it may be they only have so much kW of power to share.

[Nomme de Plum]

nigelpugh7 said:

I wonder why the max charging capacity is limited?

The NEC main substation is located in the adjacent car park.

Not got any of my own pictures but here’s a street view of the substation.

Perhaps it’s down to costs, assuming it’s National Grid who are the supplier, and it may be they only have so much kW of power to share.

I explained above. Unused capacity has to be paid for. If and when they find they are needing to throttle supply then they can call for additional capacity. It is a common approach much like we did with Data Centres. It also helps reduce initial capital expenditure.

[nigelpugh7]

Funny that you can see the Substation in this picture shared on Andy Streets Facebook feed today.

[tr3a]

ChocolateFrog said:

Might be wrong but looks like every single space has a charger, not just the blue ones.

In 2019 I encountered a large, freshly renovated parking garage in Stavanger, Norway, in which every single parking space had access to 11kW charging. I believe EV market share in Norway was about 50% at that time.

This is the future.

[Nomme de Plum]

nigelpugh7 said:

Funny that you can see the Substation in this picture shared on Andy Streets Facebook feed today.

This explains how power is delivered.

https://powercompare.co.uk/blog/distribution-netwo...

[Nomme de Plum]

tr3a said:

ChocolateFrog said:

Might be wrong but looks like every single space has a charger, not just the blue ones.

In 2019 I encountered a large, freshly renovated parking garage in Stavanger, Norway, in which every single parking space had access to 11kW charging. I believe EV market share in Norway was about 50% at that time.

This is the future.

Fortunately the NEC estate will have a significant amount of autonomy on what they can do. It gets a bit more complicated when local authorities are involved. The governments aspiration has not been combined with joined up planning and building control regulation adding unnecessary delays and costs. A number of Charge port companies have been complaining that the process is disjointed.

[tamore]

proper destination charging and a smattering of ultra fast for those passing through who need a charge.

this will be the norm in a few years. maybe just destination charging at true 'destination' locations.

[FiF]

100 chargers at University of Worcester Severn campus. Zapmap only lists 54 so far. Open to public, parking is p&display to anyone not displaying staff / student permit. A few more on St John's campus though parking there is usually crammed and not really handy for public unless actually visiting.

[Nomme de Plum]

tamore said:

proper destination charging and a smattering of ultra fast for those passing through who need a charge.

this will be the norm in a few years. maybe just destination charging at true 'destination' locations.

I wonder how typical the NEC is. It is a true designation for visitors who presumably will be there for most of the day. The exhibitors of course may also need charge capacity.

I can see local authorities particularly in holiday areas providing charging on the car park real estate provided they have not sold it off. Could be a good revenue stream

[AKjr]

CheesecakeRunner said:

This is what all car parks will look like eventually.

The sooner the better, too. We in the UK need to get our act together on the subject of public/destination charging and fast.

[tamore]

i think that private companies are starting to see the commercial angle in charging and we'll see them popping up everywhere soon.

places that ignore the requirement for destination charging will see an impact on general trade. hotels in particular.

[dvs_dave]

Nomme de Plum said:

I explained above. Unused capacity has to be paid for. If and when they find they are needing to throttle supply then they can call for additional capacity. It is a common approach much like we did with Data Centres. It also helps reduce initial capital expenditure.

Indeed, plus the fact there is no scenario where all EVSE’s will be having to deliver their nameplate capacities given how BEV charging profiles go. The only scenario where the 6.5MW supply would be a limiting factor is if every single EVSE was plugged into a low charge car at the same time and they were all pulling full power simultaneously. Theoretically possible, in practice (which is what matters) it’s not going to happen.

[TheRainMaker]

This is fantastic and could help me on our annual trip to Scotland. It's an ideal stopping point, both in mileage and time.

Nomme de Plum said:

I wonder how typical the NEC is. It is a true designation for visitors who presumably will be there for most of the day. The exhibitors of course may also need charge capacity.

It will be interesting to see how this works. One of the articles I've read said the site could turn over 1000 cars in a 12-hour day, which I can't see as the 150 slow chargers will have cars dumped on them all day, no one is going to walk back from the exhibition hall halfway through the day to move their car.

The NEC has 16500 car parking spaces, they now have charging on site for less than 1%. I'm intrigued to see how this works out, like you say, this is a true destination, and people will travel quite a distance to get there.

[Nomme de Plum]

TheRainMaker said:

It will be interesting to see how this works. One of the articles I've read said the site could turn over 1000 cars in a 12-hour day, which I can't see as the 150 slow chargers will have cars dumped on them all day, no one is going to walk back from the exhibition hall halfway through the day to move their car.

The NEC has 16500 car parking spaces, they now have charging on site for less than 1%. I'm intrigued to see how this works out, like you say, this is a true destination, and people will travel quite a distance to get there.

It is quite possible to limit charge time and force motorists to move or face punitive parking fees. The charger will know the state of charge of any particular EV so maybe send a signal to the owner when a set percentage is getting close.

It's 2023 not 2033 or even 43 so more capacity can be added as and when required.