Gridserve Charger Sites in UK [megathread]

[Jason71]

Moderation comment - initial posts merged from "UK's first custom charging forecourt"

Just been announced ( or just hit the mainstream press anyway). Sounds like a step in the right direction.

GRIDSERVE | GRIDSERVE submits planning application for Braintree Electric Forecourt®

First of a planned 100 apparently. no kw prices yet of course but sounds encouraging:

• Rapid charging – Each vehicle will be able to charge simultaneously at the fastest power levels supported. This includes 350kW chargers – offering less than 30-minute charge times, with options to upgrade chargers to 500kW, and MW charging options for buses and heavy goods vehicles.
  
  
• Competitive pricing – GRIDSERVE is also investing in grid infrastructure and new solar energy capacity to be able to deliver dependable, clean, low-cost energy that materially improves the business case for EVs, and is competitive with the cost of home charging.
  
  
• Minimal waiting – The site will include 24 ultra-fast charging bays, with batteries to support the maximum power requirements of all chargers simultaneously. A queuing system will also minimise waiting times, with a future upgrade that will allow customers to be able to reserve charging slots in advance.

 

[MaDProFF]

All this is great, but the costs to charge will be not worth it.

 

[Yev000]

Nice, are those Tesla Superchargers in the corner as well?

 

[Jason71]

Nice, are those Tesla Superchargers in the corner as well?

I doubt they will have anything proprietary. would not make much sense. Though the DM keeps referring to them as "superchargers" in their story on this. I wonder if that term will become a generic term for rapid chargers eventually?

 

[Jason71]

All this is great, but the costs to charge will be not worth it.

Public charging is never going to be as cheap as charging at home. but its necessary and its good that they are at least talking about "competitive pricing". Admitted that could mean anything upto about 40p per kw at present but anything is better than Ionity!

 

[GoTLSAGo]

It's great this is happening here in the UK. I expect the cost to charge to be high initially but if we as EV owners can back this sort of development it should encourage other companies to build similar charging stations which can only help lower the eventual price they charge (assuming they do not all collude or the government start taxing EV charging...wouldn't put this past future governments if/when fuel tax take starts to dwindle).

However this is clearly the future!

 

[WannabeOwner]

I doubt they will have anything proprietary. would not make much sense.

Tesla have "done deals" where they bring in all the infrastructure and then "others" put them pumps up alongside. Of course the "others" could just do it all themselves, but they seem to have been happy for Tesla to do the heavy-lifting ... lack of sticking-neck-out seems to be common.

Just been announced ( or just hit the mainstream press anyway)

The articled linked is July-2019 ... any news of how it is going in Braintree. I don't go that way often, but will make a note to have a butchers next time

the government start taxing EV charging...wouldn't put this past future governments if/when fuel tax take starts to dwindle

I think much more likely that they will introduce road-use-charge instead (could be an on-transfer and at-MOT mileage charge, at its most basic). EV can charge from 3-pin-plug, trying to charge extra for EV charging would be "complicated".

 

[AndrewGR]

Looks like a good idea. But the nose to tail parking arrangement at the charge points doesn’t look like it would support larger commercial vehicles. Is there any vehicle that will support 350 kW charging at the moment?I suspect they will need some very large batteries to support simultaneous maximum rate charging on all those bays!

 

[Durzel]

Where's the power station going to be situated? They haven't shown it in their renders.

24 simultaneous use rapid charge points dishing out 350kW+ ??

EDIT: I see they are saying they will have batteries there, but those batteries will still need charging themselves.

 

[WannabeOwner]

I suspect they will need some very large batteries to support simultaneous maximum rate charging on all those bays!

I'm curious as to how batteries help with peak power

Assuming vehicles arrive at a steady rate isn't the power consumption pretty much steady-state? Newly arrived cars with empty batteries take peak-power, but the ones that have been there 15 minutes have already fallen to, say, half that?

Whenever I stop at Supercharger cars seem to come and go at fairly uniform rate. I'm sure there must be some "a bunch of cars, all with empty batteries and able to sustain full-charge, arrive at the same time" events, but I reckon they are extremely rare

Only thing I can think of is avoiding a max-demand charge maybe

 

[Jez_GB]

Tesla have "done deals" where they bring in all the infrastructure and then "others" put them pumps up alongside. Of course the "others" could just do it all themselves, but they seem to have been happy for Tesla to do the heavy-lifting ... lack of sticking-neck-out seems to be common.



The articled linked is July-2019 ... any news of how it is going in Braintree. I don't go that way often, but will make a note to have a butchers next time



I think much more likely that they will introduce road-use-charge instead (could be an on-transfer and at-MOT mileage charge, at its most basic). EV can charge from 3-pin-plug, trying to charge extra for EV charging would be "complicated".

A quick Google reveals that construction has started, with expected opening this summer..... It's not Tesla time, so maybe

 

[Jason71]

I think much more likely that they will introduce road-use-charge instead (could be an on-transfer and at-MOT mileage charge, at its most basic). EV can charge from 3-pin-plug, trying to charge extra for EV charging would be "complicated".

Agree. trying to separate out EV charging electricity from domestic use electricity would be nigh on impossible and just taxing public charging would not bring in enough since most happens at home and would penalise the poorest people who tend to be the ones without a drive who have to use public charging.
Much easier just to charge for miles driven with a multiplication factor for vehicle efficiency/weight if necessary. I think you still want to encourage use of small light efficient vehicles even in the post ICE era

 

[GoTLSAGo]

Agree. trying to separate out EV charging electricity from domestic use electricity would be nigh on impossible and just taxing public charging would not bring in enough since most happens at home and would penalise the poorest people who tend to be the ones without a drive who have to use public charging.
Much easier just to charge for miles driven with a multiplication factor for vehicle efficiency/weight if necessary. I think you still want to encourage use of small light efficient vehicles even in the post ICE era

You seem to have very high hopes for the way our politicians and policy makers think...i wish i lived in a land where this was the case

 

[AndrewGR]

My assumption is that the batteries at the EV charging station would be big enough to cope with daytime peaks and would re-charge off-peak / overnight. I haven’t done the sums but I would think they would have to be pretty big. I’d guess the station would need at least a 2MW power supply, maybe more if vehicles capable of taking the full 350kW charge rate become commonplace.

 

[WannabeOwner]

My assumption is that the batteries at the EV charging station would be big enough to cope with daytime peaks and would re-charge off-peak / overnight

60 kW average during an average charge? (30 minute charge would add 30kWh)

24 stalls (e.g. Braintree)

100% occupied for 12 hours during Peak rate period

12 hours x 24 stalls x 60 kW = 17 MWh. At US$100 per kWh battery that's $1.7M for the battery. Gonna have to save a lot on Off Peak juice ...

But my sums may be way off ?

 

[AndrewGR]

I’ve just looked for the planning application for this facility and haven’t found it. However I did find an application by Gridserve for a 10MW capacity electric battery storage facility. Can we assume that it should have said 10MWh? If I can post a link correctly it is at https://publicaccess.braintree.gov.uk/online-applications/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage

 

[NorfolkMustard]

here you go
19/01092/FUL | Proposed development of an Electric Forecourt, comprising of 24 core electric vehicle charging points, energy storage, a mix of ancillary dwell facilities, car parking, hard and soft landscaping and access arrangements off the A131, Great Notley. | Land West Of A131 London Road Great Notley Essex

energy storage container sketch
https://publicaccess.braintree.gov....1092_FUL-ENERGY_STORAGE_CONTAINER-1621662.pdf

 

[aerowave]

This looks exciting!

 

[Harv3y]

Got to say those renders look awesome! These will start to pop up everywhere over the next few years

 

[WannabeOwner]

renders look awesome!

Looks like a lot of dosh to me ... I'd prefer more stalls over slick-looking. But if slick-looking attracts more punters don't let me stop them!

I'm sceptical that small area of PV on the roof (not just them, Superchargers et al too) adds anything worthwhile. Nor a roof for that matter ... a few seconds to plug in, in the rain. Perhaps in hot countries the shade is worthwhile.

Just seems a lot of dosh to me ... but I may well be missing the blinking obvious?