Supercharger - Atlanta, GA - Lenox Rd.

[ChrisC]

I learned earlier this week that construction had started on the supercharging stations at Lenox Mall, so drove by today to see if I could find it. I think I have spotted the location. Right now it is just fenced off, with signs of asphalt cutting, and some conduit staged for installation. But based on the exact location and the shape of the fenced off area and the above details, it sure looks like a supercharging site.

The exact location is in the bottom / ground level of the Lenox Road parking deck, on the eastern side of mall. The site is in southeast corner. Within a week we should be able to tell if it really is a supercharging site, based on trenching, crates, etc.

 

[terrywhite]

That’s cool! Can’t wait for more to be put south of downtown.

 

[jelloslug]

@BlueShift

 

[ChrisC]

Note to @BlueShift : I wouldn't put this on supercharge.info just yet. I am 90% confident on this one, but lets give it a few more days to be sure, as I described above.

 

[emupilot]

There are 7 permit entries (go here and search for Tesla under Permit Name) dating back as far as October 20th, all at 3393 Peachtree Road NE. A couple of the permits have been issued, although one from February is still pending.

TESLA CHARGING STATION. INSTALL 3 CHARGING CABINETS,5 CHARGING POSTS, 1 QED SWITCHGEAR ASSEMBLY & 3 NLTC TRANSFORMS NO SAP PER OOP

So yeah it's a supercharger but just 5 charging posts? That's going to get crowded.

 

[ChrisC]

There have been rumblings of supercharging at Lenox since last summer, since before they even launched the urban supercharger model, so I think this site has been evolving continuously the whole time. So I wouldn't scrutinize old permits too closely. I fully expect this to be a large site, 10 pedestals at least. But let's just wait a week and see what the construction looks like. The fencing today was surrounding around a dozen parking spaces, so either that's ~10 + switchgear, or 12-16 with switchgear nearby. There was some landscaping nearby that the switchgear could be tucked into.

 

[emaldy]

Spotted this teaser sign at the Decatur Supercharger/Service Center on Saturday. Not sure if related to Lenox

 

[ChrisC]

The sign mentioned above was also seen at Atlantic Station last Wednesday.

I stopped by Lenox today. Trenching is underway, and I spotted the permit posted on the fence (don't think it was there last week). Actually two permits, don't know why. But we now know that it's definitely a Tesla site (see pics of permits). It does say "3 charging cabinets, 5 charging posts", which would be surprisingly small for a modern Tesla SC installation, but let's see what materializes.

This Lenox location is NOT showing up on the revamped map that Tesla released last week. I suppose these could be just HPWCs , but I don't think so. Perhaps someone else here can scrutinize the permit and tell us if something in them clearly indicates supercharger or not; for example, the mention of the NLTC transformer says "supercharger" to me.

If you want to check out the location for yourself, it's not hard to find but there's an easy way and all the other hard ways. It is located on the ground / bottom level of the "Lenox Road" parking deck. When you drive into the Lenox Mall complex, you'll immediately turn left to get on the access road that goes around the complex. Here's the trick: ignore the first 2-3 entrances to the Lenox Road deck. The further you go, slightly downhill, the lower you will be entering into the deck. The LAST entrance (3rd or 4th depending on how you count) puts you into the deck very close to the Tesla charging location -- drive in and immediately turn left. One of the pictures attached here is of the correct entrance to use; do NOT use either of the entrances with the gigantic white Lenox signs.

Once at the Tesla location, the entrance to the mall itself is hard to spot, and unsigned, and if you miss it you will end up going another way and walking up a long flight of stairs. The best entrance is right next to the Herzing University (cough) entrance; look for the Herzing sign and enter the mall via the doors to the right. That entrance takes you into the mall's Plaza level, right next to the California Pizza kitchen.

 

[Knightro]

Drove by this weekend. This definitely seems more than 5 charging posts. I would say it's closer to 20 spots.

 

[jelloslug]

Drove by this weekend. This definitely seems more than 5 charging posts. I would say it's closer to 20 spots.

I though that 5 was not only an odd number to install, but hardly worth the effort for a location like that.

 

[ChrisC]

I stopped by this evening. Lots to report. I have seven great photos but the forum won't accept the uploads and I'm giving up on that. Too bad, because I have pictures of parts and part numbers and figured someone here could advise. EDIT: and I've transcribed some of them in below. Grrr.

Trenching is nearly done; there is tons of dirt piled up. Some of the conduits are in place, e.g. between the cabinets and switchgear, but none of the pedestal conduit is in place yet, so no pedestal count yet. However, I believe it's going to be a sixteen (16) pedestal site, based on the length of trenches, the precast concrete blocks that are staged, and the number of cabinets.

There are five huge Schneider switchgear cabinets staged nearby, and and ELEVEN smaller cabinets wrapped in white. They are clearly Tesla cabinets, and I think that 11 correlates to 8 charging cabinets plus three more for connectivity or whatever.

Just outside the deck, in the landscaped area, the wood forms are in place for the cabinet bases. I think only half of the conduit is in place there, so that will be a while yet.

There are what appear to be pedestal boxes with the following label on them:
UC,TOPLVL,PACKAGED,TSLA,SNGL COND,2POST
Perhaps someone here can interpret that as regular 120 kW supercharger pedestals or the 72 kW "urban" kind.

The Tesla cabinets have a label on them saying:
(P) TPN: 1133063-00-A (probably a part number)
(S) TSN: T1880007291 (probably a serial number)
Cabinet, UC, SC - 072x2
That "072x2" makes me think these are urban superchargers.

It sure is easier to get to this location at 10pm at night then during the day.

 

[ChrisC]

Stopped this evening. More conduit is in place, still lots of dirt moving to do and concrete to pour. There are 13-14 pedestal bases in place, and I now think there will be 7 more for a total of 21 stations. This would then match the signs that were spotted at nearby Tesla stores.

Gonna try again to upload some pictures ... nope, more TMC fail. The conduit serving the cabinets is particularly interesting.

 

[ChrisC]

I just tried again to upload some photos, and failed. I then did some hunting around and found this thread that confirms that the TMC forum is actually having problems with image uploads, and has had problems for two weeks. I won't try again until this thread indicates that they've found and fixed the problem: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/images-on-tmc-glitchy.116882/

 

[ChrisC]

Concrete has been poured for the cabinets, most cabinets have been placed, and the trenching is nearly done being filled back in. 16 pedestal bases (concrete and conduit) are in, and parts for 5 more are nearby.

TMC image uploading is working again.

 

[ChrisC]

Oh, one more thing: I did not spot a utility transformer, nor a pad for it.

 

[ChrisC]

Weekly update ... The last of the trenches have been filled in, and the 3 outlier pedestal bases are in. When I stopped by they were working on what looked like 4 small transformers -- still no big utility transformer spotted.

About a dozen large spools of cabling have been delivered. I imagine they'll be pulling those through the conduit soon.

 

[ChrisC]

I have also heard that these cabinets will be capable of 160 kilowatts (the standard old 400V x 400A model) and are not the urban model. That doesn't seem to square with what we've seen above, but there you go. Expect completion in 3 to 4 weeks.

 

[Autogyro]

They’ll be the urban Superchargers. See picture

 

[ChrisC]

Weekly update. LOTS to talk about.

The 16 pedestals are in, and are indeed the urban supercharger style. Now my guess is that the "160 kW cabinets" I was told about are for supporting two urban chargers each, just no fancy power sharing like in regular superchargers.

The support cabinets are nearly done. The small white transformers look nearly done, have green grounding wires hanging loose. Brown fencing is mostly installed.

The most interesting thing is the power feed from the utility grid. There are huge conduits feeding a big connection box in the middle of the long pedestal row, and that is the 480V feed from EXISTING transformer for the Lenox complex, just ~70 feet away. These transformers are behind a chainlink fence, and the power connections there are seriously awesome to look at. The Tesla connection is in work, not yet done. Look closely at the bus bar connections overhead -- you'll see that the busbar taps are in place but NOT actually connected to the busses yet, just tiewrapped. When they are done, those red sleeves will be gone and the whole thing will be wrapped in black insulation. It's very interesting to study, and I imagine that if you stand there long enough, security will come shoo you away. There are video cameras.

But wait, there's more ...

 

[ChrisC]

There is ANOTHER construction site, and I think this is where the remaining five stations are going.

You know where the non-Tesla DCFC charging stations are, in the extreme northwest corner of the Lenox complex? Well, to the right / east of those there is fencing up, and a new transformer, and I bet this is where the last five supercharging stations are going. They have 12 spots fenced off, but I think that's just so they can dig the trench and place the cabinets.

If you don't know where this is ... Imagine you are at the Lenox Tesla store. Step out the front door to the outside parking lot. Face away from the store, looking north across the parking lot. Waaaaay in the distance, about 10 feet short of Peachtree Road, are the non-Tesla DCFC stations. The construction is to the right of that; it's not quite visible from the Tesla storefront itself, but easy for them to point you to. "Go that way and then turn right."

Of course, the bigger install is in the Lenox Road deck.

Exciting stuff!