Charging at Power Production Facilities?

[LoudMusic]

Am I the only one who thinks it's odd there aren't EV charging options at the big power production places? The big examples that come to mind are Hoover, Grand Coulee, Bonneville, The Dalles, ... they all have visitors' centers and nerdy people who drive EVs probably go to these places. I'm sure there are some nuclear, solar, and wind farms with visitors' centers as well.

I've toured all the dams I mentioned above and they're all fascinating and unique. I can't think of something more "destination charging" than hydroelectric dams.

 

[1100MCM]

I used to think this but in a sense these places aren’t special in regards to having a “glut” of electricity or because they are where electricity is “made.”

Other than transformers that feed auxiliary equipment for plant functions such as pumps or plant control systems, which are directly connected to the plant’s generation or switchyard, most electricity supplied to these sites comes from the electric distribution system. Their lower power electric load such as lighting or HVAC is supplied through the utility’s electric distribution system at medium voltages such as 12 kV but is likely brought to the site on distribution lines from a substation that is likely miles from that power plant.

In essence, that’s like bringing in power to any other place or any other EV or supercharger site: it still needs to be supplied from a utility’s electric distribution system.

 

[pb2000]

Switching to thermal plants, they generally aren't a place people want to hang around, which is a shame, because there's so much you could do with the waste heat. You could visit a nice warm indoor waterpark while your tesla autonomously charges then visits the steam cleaner car wash.

 

[Janus]

The vast majority of hydropower stations in the US (including Hoover, Grand Coulee, Bonneville, The Dalles) are federally owned. It's been difficult to get Tesla destination EVSEs into National Parks, because the NPS wants all EV changing to be available to all visitors, not just of a certain brand. Same will likely hold true for other federally owned facilities.

That being said, a new Executive Order signed by President Biden mandates that all federal agencies switch to using EVs. So, very likely, there will be a huge build up of EV charging capacity at all federal facilities. Hopefully, this will come with EVSEs that are accessible to visitors.

 

[LoudMusic]

The vast majority of hydropower stations in the US (including Hoover, Grand Coulee, Bonneville, The Dalles) are federally owned. It's been difficult to get Tesla destination EVSEs into National Parks, because the NPS wants all EV changing to be available to all visitors, not just of a certain brand. Same will likely hold true for other federally owned facilities.

That being said, a new Executive Order signed by President Biden mandates that all federal agencies switch to using EVs. So, very likely, there will be a huge build up of EV charging capacity at all federal facilities. Hopefully, this will come with EVSEs that are accessible to visitors.

I completely agree with it needing to not be tesla-centric. But having high power J1772, CHAdeMO, and CCS, would make a lot of sense at all these locations. I'd LOVE to have some good charging options in the national parks beyond just the RV campgrounds.

 

[cpa]

Who buys the output from these facilities? I know that once upon a time, the power generated at Hoover Dam was sold to a number of municipal utilities like LADWP, Glendale Municipal Utilities, and others in the Southern California area. Likely Vegas bought a lot of this power. SCE too maybe.

It is clear that the amount of electricity that would be used by these charging stations would be immaterial to the total produced at any given time. But there are contractual arrangements in place, and I am not certain that these contracts provide for any ullage that winds up going into our cars.

 

[LoudMusic]

I'm not sure that charging EVs at this location would make a perceivable dent in the amount of power supplied outside of the facilities. Further, the power for charging EVs could be taken from the on site generators used for local power.

Hoover Dam | Bureau of Reclamation

The plant has a nameplate capacity of about 2,080 megawatts. This includes the two station-service units (small generating units that provide power for plant operations), which are rated at 2.4 megawatts each.

If Hoover had a Supercharger facility the size of Firebaugh, CA, (56 stalls of 250kW) and every stall was supplying maximum current to the attached car, (combined 14MW), it would still only be 0.67% of the dam's potential output. The typical 8 stall 250kW Supercharger location (2MW) would only be 0.0096%, and I don't think that would ever happen. And it could entirely be covered by the dam's local power generators.

Grand Coulee is 6,809MW. More than 3x as much as Hoover.

 

[LoudMusic]

Besides, why wouldn't any power company purchasing wholesale power from the dam receive the payment for vehicles charging off their power? Maybe they'd be on board with it!

 

[tkizzy]

On the plus side, those would be among the most efficient electrons you could drive on....straight from the source! (Unless you generate your own electricity via solar and/or solar+ powerwall.

 

[LoudMusic]

On the plus side, those would be among the most efficient electrons you could drive on....straight from the source! (Unless you generate your own electricity via solar and/or solar+ powerwall.

I think these people win that honor.

Solar Car Challenge - SolarCarChallenge - High School Solar