Penn State Destination Chargers

[hkozinn]

I travel to Penn State on occasion and the area is in desperate need of a Supercharger or at least some destination chargers. I've stayed at The Penn Stater and The Nittany Lion Inn and they have gone out of their way to drag cables out of their loading dock to charge me up. I contacted Tesla to propose Destination Chargers at these 2 hotels. After months of deliberation I just received the following email from Tesla.

Howard,

Penn State has formally declined Tesla’s offer – at this point there is nothing we can do for those specific hotels but I will keep looking around the city for alternate options.

Please see the below correspondence.

Best,
Ciaran Doyle | Regional Project Manager, Destination Charging
3500 Deer Creek Road, Palo Alto CA, 94304
p. 650.681.6454 | e: [email protected] |

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From: DeMayo, Rob [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2015 5:50 PM
To: Ciaran Doyle
Subject: RE: Tesla Destination Charging



Evening Ciaran,

I’ve been able to now make the rounds on discussions regarding the Tesla charging points adjacent to the Nittany Lion Inn. Unfortunately, with the language removed from the agreement, Penn State won’t currently be in a position to accept the equipment, nor the money for installation.

I want to thank you for the offer, and appreciate your time and efforts. If you’d like to speak more about it, please let me know and I can quickly arrange something in the new year, in the hopes of progressing this.

Very best regards,

Rob DeMayo
Director of Transportation Services
_____________________________________
The Pennsylvania State University
5 Fleet Operations Building
University Park, PA 16802

 

[mmccord]

There is a sheetz in state college with a chademo charger i have used to get to Pittsburgh. It's not perfect, but gets the job done.

 

[AudubonB]

If your travel takes you there on a Saturday afternoon, just park it by that big ovate structure near the east end of campus. The psychic energy emanating from Beaver Stadium will inductively fill any Tesla faster than a SuperCharger, for sure.

 

[Half Dollar Bill]

The Penn State Conference Center has a 14-50.
I've used the Sustainability L2 charger in the field outside Beaver Stadium and on the other side of the stadium there are either 2 or 3 L2's that generally get used for PSU's electric fleet but the spots aren't roped off and are accessible, especially on weekends.
Not saying any of these spots are incredibly convenient to downtown or the middle of campus but they are there.

That aside, I believe TheShadows had a line on a conversation PSU was having to put superchargers at the Conference Center.

 

[loganss]

hkozinn, you might not want to just copy and paste that entire message. It's probably better to paraphrase the conversation instead.

Penn State has been disappointing in terms of EV charging.
The Atherton Hotel is sticking to its NEMA 6-50 plug and only a few places have Level 2 or higher charging. It's a bit shocking given that installing level 2 charging isn't that expensive for the potential of more customers.
Last time I was up there I used the Jabco-Maggi Level 2 charger and took the bus to get into town. The addition of the Sheetz Chademo charger is very nice.

 

[CatB]

Has anyone tried the Carnegie Inn? I stayed there a few times a while back and that place strikes me as the ideal location for a destination charger (or 2). Dinner, spa and/or overnight lodging are all quite respectable ways to spend a few hours or more charging.

 

[loganss]

The Toftrees area is a bit isolated but it's not too far from 99/322. I'd chose there over the Penn Stater location if those were my choices.

Another spot that has a few hotels that I think would be great is near the Texas Roadhouse and Cracker Barrel restaurants. It's close to 99/322 and there are a bunch of food choices. The Texas Roadhouse cinnamon butter and bread is sooo good.

 

[Half Dollar Bill]

Can I get the lowdown from someone local?
The Center for Sustainability's charger at the solar house outside the stadium isn't on Plugshare and the chargers at OPP on the other side of the stadium aren't listed either. If they've been removed/restricted it's going to make our next trip challenging. Any locals have insight?
Thanks kindly.

 

[Half Dollar Bill]

So, The Penn Stater is putting in 4 (four) J1772 chargers. Site work has been done and it appears they're just waiting on equipment. I believe this means that the 60 amp outlet at the loading dock will be going away. They are a lot busier with food service lately and they're afraid someone's car is going to get damaged at the dock with trucks pulling in and out.

Due to a misunderstanding about the power requirements, a supercharger is not going in at the Penn Stater. I'll be checking out the status of some of the other sites on campus tomorrow that disappeared from Plugshare listing.

 

[loganss]

Thanks for the info HDB.
Do you know if those chargers would be available to the public for a fee or is it just for guests of the hotel?

I wonder if they'll be online by Blue & White wknd. I'll be up there. A few weeks ago i went to charge at the Jacobi-Maggi store and wrote them a check for my energy usage.

 

[Half Dollar Bill]

Thanks for the info HDB.
Do you know if those chargers would be available to the public for a fee or is it just for guests of the hotel?

I wonder if they'll be online by Blue & White wknd. I'll be up there. A few weeks ago i went to charge at the Jacobi-Maggi store and wrote them a check for my energy usage.

My apologies as it didn't cross my mind to ask that reasonable question. I do have a follow-up in with the staff and will repost here if/when I hear back.

I am happy to report that the charger at the solar house by the stadium is still active. I plugged in and was able to start charging. There is no signage restricting usage. The chargers on other side of the stadium on Park Ave at the maintenance facility are still present although they are all labeled now for use by university vehicles only. I suppose this is why the Park Ave chargers were removed from Plugshare though I have no idea why the charger at the solar house would have been removed.

On the way out of town, I stopped in Lewisburg, Columbia County, where Tesla is targeting a supercharger according to their map. Since they've partnered with Holiday Inn Express locations in the past and since one of their hotels is right off Interstate 80, I stopped there to ask the management if they have been contacted by Tesla yet. They have not, according to the people I talked to, but they were VERY receptive to hosting a location. I got their contact info and forwarded it to the supercharger team if they didn't have the ball rolling already.

I also spent some time with the Penn State EcoCAR 3 team and will be posting that write-up under the Off-Topic forum.