Supercharger - Frederick, MD

[Reddy Kilowatt]

I meant, what could have gone wrong to this point that would have delayed it before anything had happened? I thought they had the permits already?

They might have a building permit but not the electrical. I have forgotten what we know for sure. They may only have a Q number, which is plan submittal.

Bottom line is the people involved don't have an incentive to make things happen. If it is government we know how to fix it, but it requires getting people to make it into an election issue and take action at the polls.

You are correct. But politics may not come into play at this level, unless the local opinion is to slow down development.

I lived in Fairfax in the late 80's when traffic had become a disaster. The entire Board of Supervisors was removed from office over the issue regardless of whether they were part of the problem or not.

I remember it also. Mainly when the southern districts alway over road our needs. " the gods intended it that way" said the former politician.

t this point are you able to make a round trip from Gainesville to Frederick and back? I know it will be nice when it does open though. I have the crystal ball watching Leesburg but that one has gone really quite. I'll drive by tomorrow and see if there is any movement on my way out of town.

 

[Nilnoc]

Did a drive by today. Nada. Sad....

 

[gnuarm]

Did a drive by today. Nada. Sad....

A week or so ago I noticed there were some paint makings on the ground around the transformer across the street and even some on this side of the intersection near the charger location. They don't look fresh. I took pics, but they aren't very clear, so I won't post. I assume these are rather old paint marks? How long do these typically last?

 

[Reddy Kilowatt]

A week or so ago I noticed there were some paint makings on the ground around the transformer across the street and even some on this side of the intersection near the charger location. They don't look fresh. I took pics, but they aren't very clear, so I won't post. I assume these are rather old paint marks? How long do these typically last?

Typically 90 days is the norm for miss utility markings. (unless they used real paint) According to my Crystal ball the feed will come up the road from the Restaurant on the same side of the street.

How do you commute from the south. Do you pass through the Chapel hill area?

 

[gnuarm]

They might have a building permit but not the electrical. I have forgotten what we know for sure. They may only have a Q number, which is plan submittal.

Yeah, I didn't consider there are a number of different permits that would be required.

[A]t this point are you able to make a round trip from Gainesville to Frederick and back? I know it will be nice when it does open though. I have the crystal ball watching Leesburg but that one has gone really quite. I'll drive by tomorrow and see if there is any movement on my way out of town.

Even in the winter I could make the trip if I charged to 90% at Haymarket in both directions I believe. It's around 60 miles each way which allows significant local driving without running short. I don't recall exactly why I had trouble with charging after Haymarket was up and running. I guess in winter the range is just not there to support much local driving.

Since there are many fewer Teslas in Frederick County than around Gaithersburg, I'm hoping there won't be too much crowding here. The one problem with Superchargers is trying to plan a stop only to find you are sharing a charger which means you might have plugged in minutes after the guy you are sharing with resulting in 36 kW for over half an hour before you get faster charging which will still be far below the 120 kW you were expecting. That's what I run into in Gaithersburg. Not only do I need to plan for an hour of driving, I have no way of knowing how long the charging might take.

I get the advantage of sharing the chargers this way, but it would be much more useful if Tesla provided some means of knowing the charging rates available at each charging bay. That should not be a hard to thing to do in the car.

 

[gnuarm]

Typically 90 days is the norm for miss utility markings. (unless they used real paint) According to my Crystal ball the feed will come up the road from the Restaurant on the same side of the street.

How do you commute from the south. Do you pass through the Chapel hill area?

If I come from South Carolina, I'm headed to my place near Lake Anna and use Rt 95. Rocky Mount is my preferred stop since it can be the only stop if I'm lucky... or I should say in the summer. I also use Chester which is at a Wawa which is ok. Rocky Mount has a couple of tolerable restaurants and is right near the company who makes my printed circuit boards, so I sometimes spend the night when stopping by for a production run. The Doubletree hotel is pretty good and the chargers are in the parking lot.

 

[mociaf9]

The one problem with Superchargers is trying to plan a stop only to find you are sharing a charger which means you might have plugged in minutes after the guy you are sharing with resulting in 36 kW for over half an hour before you get faster charging which will still be far below the 120 kW you were expecting.

This is exactly the advantage of the urban style superchargers. You'll won't get the high power of the max, unpaired traditional style superchargers, but you're guaranteed to get about 2 times better than the remainder offered when you're plugging in second to a paired stall. And you'll always have a much better idea of how long it will take. At least, assuming the charging equipment and your vehicle are in proper working order, you will.

 

[gnuarm]

This is exactly the advantage of the urban style superchargers. You'll won't get the high power of the max, unpaired traditional style superchargers, but you're guaranteed to get about 2 times better than the remainder offered when you're plugging in second to a paired stall. And you'll always have a much better idea of how long it will take. At least, assuming the charging equipment and your vehicle are in proper working order, you will.

Yeah, I know. If you only want to charge while shopping, then the urban chargers are good and give you an assured, but slower than max charging rate. I expect they still require you to disconnect when done.

The 36 kW remainder is only while the adjacent car is charging up to something around 60%. Some had theorized the charging units are in blocks of 36 kW, but the other day when I was second on a pair I initially got 36 kW, but soon after it ramped up to around 60 kW rather than the full 72 kW it should have provided if a block switched from the adjacent car to mine. I didn't sit and wait to see how long it would take to ge a higher charging rate and just how it increased. Sometimes I have time to kill, but often I need to get in, charge and get the heck out again. I just don't have the time to make this car a subject of intense study.

 

[Big Earl]

Yeah, I know. If you only want to charge while shopping, then the urban chargers are good and give you an assured, but slower than max charging rate. I expect they still require you to disconnect when done.

The 36 kW remainder is only while the adjacent car is charging up to something around 60%. Some had theorized the charging units are in blocks of 36 kW, but the other day when I was second on a pair I initially got 36 kW, but soon after it ramped up to around 60 kW rather than the full 72 kW it should have provided if a block switched from the adjacent car to mine. I didn't sit and wait to see how long it would take to ge a higher charging rate and just how it increased. Sometimes I have time to kill, but often I need to get in, charge and get the heck out again. I just don't have the time to make this car a subject of intense study.

It works in blocks of 36 kW in a best case scenario. It's physically connecting three 12 kW chargers to your car (one on each phase of 277/480v power), but sometimes they are not able to operate at maximum output for one reason or another. Could be one of the chargers needs service and can't output full power, one of the charging cabinets has a cooling issue and has to throttle back, or the entire site is throttled.

So your 60 kW would have been two sets of three chargers (72 kW ideal), but it was slowed down for some reason.

 

[gnuarm]

I'm getting worried about Tesla continuing to build Superchargers at all in addition to building this one. If they break ground and start incurring obligations, then I would expect it to be finished at some point. But given Tesla's current financial condition I fully expect the Supercharging network expansion to come to a near halt other than in critical locations like some places in California.

I get tired of having to always consider getting a charge on the road when in Frederick. The navigation is not very user friendly in that it always wants to route me along the 270/95 corridor regardless of the traffic and there are no options for indicating a preference to avoid any given route or in general congested routes. The range of the car is clearly not nearly as good as you might think, only offering at times less than half the advertised range which even when charging in each direction doesn't do the job. I actually needed to stop at a Leesburg destination charger in order to reach Haymarket last week. At least I finally confirmed the car will charge at the full 72 amps (15 kW).

I would love to see any sign that work on the Frederick Supercharger has actually been started so we might have use by the time the cold winter weather sets in and crushes the range.

 

[Nilnoc]

As of Tuesday, 14 May, no sign of a start on construction. Sadness.

 

[gnuarm]

As of Tuesday, 14 May, no sign of a start on construction. Sadness.

Sorry for my negative post. I'm not very happy with the way the Tesla service center is dissing me and I'm also getting a raw deal at the Toyota service center on my truck. Then there is all the bad news about Tesla finances and I am thinking the Frederick Supercharger is not going to happen. I guess I should keep this to myself.

 

[Reddy Kilowatt]

Well this could be the main reason Tesla doesn’t publicize there locations until they break ground. The whole engineering process is difficult and takes time. They have to run through a mind field of items, anyone of which can kill the deal.

I know of a site at Reston Town Center in which 3 brands are trying to build charging stations together. The power requirements have gone through the roof as well as the cost to build it. I would not be surprised to see it killed once they get it engineered. The infrastructure is just not there to support such an endeavor and could die right there. Paid parking is another issue there. Look at MGM I don’t think customers were very happy about that deal.

If costs get to high Tesla will simply walk on a site regardless of what they have spent in engineering and or permits. I have seen this happen on many occasions in the building industry.

Secondly the construction industry is swamped and they could just be stretched to thin. I think you will see this at Leesberg with Dominion’s Sub contractors. You will at least get that site soon.

The whole process just takes time workings it’s way through all the red tape. Sometime taking years.
Just have to be patient. We caught this one early.

 

[RTPEV]

Look at it this way...the delay may be a blessing in disguise. This site may end up being a V3 Supercharger.

 

[gnuarm]

Look at it this way...the delay may be a blessing in disguise. This site may end up being a V3 Supercharger.

Not trying to be a jerk, but I really could not care less about the next gen charging. I've not heard that it will help the model S or X since Tesla seems to be very focused on the model 3 these days. But for any of the cars it will only provide a not so large improvement in charging speed. My understanding is the charging rate curve is a triangle. The present rate curve is limited between about 15% and 50% by the charger and we see the remainder of the triangle outside of that range. So the boost will only be within that range and will now be limited by the actual battery, so sliding from some boost at the max rate to no boost at 15% and 50%. The next gen chargers will mostly eliminate the very slow charging rate when sharing a charger. That's only a problem when most units are in use.

The issue for me is not so bad in the warm months. But having a charger in Frederick might mean I could do the round trip without charging and only need to charge a bit on reaching Frederick, then get a full charge on leaving. In the winter I would still need to use Haymarket no matter what, but at least I'd not have to worry about being able to do the round trip from Haymarket, to Frederick, a bit of local driving and back to Haymarket. It's about 60 miles each way and no more than 50 miles local driving, so no more than 170 miles and a 100 kWh battery still isn't enough in the winter.

I have my concerns with EVs being acceptable to the general public once the many range issues start to become common knowledge. But that is a topic for a different thread.

 

[RTPEV]

I've not heard that it will help the model S or X since Tesla seems to be very focused on the model 3 these days.

Well, as you went on to say, it does have the benefit of a dedicated charger, and while it may be tough to gauge whether this would be a busy site or not, not having to worry about overcrowding would seem like a positive.

 

[Nilnoc]

As of Friday, 7 June, no sign of a start on construction. Continued sadness.

 

[Kindog 1]

Just stopped by last week and see all the Miss Utility line markers. The location is now clearly marked off for 10 superchargers and some of the cabling and transformers. Perhaps someone has reported this already, but I just saw it. Also looks like there has been 1-2 lawn mowings since they painted the line markers. We shall see how long it takes for the installation crew to show up.

 

[Lanny]

Miss Utility Ticket No: 19370061
Original Call Date: 06/04/19
Type of Work: INST ELEC SVC
Work Being Done For: TESLA

 

[RTPEV]

Just stopped by last week and see all the Miss Utility line markers. The location is now clearly marked off for 10 superchargers and some of the cabling and transformers. Perhaps someone has reported this already, but I just saw it. Also looks like there has been 1-2 lawn mowings since they painted the line markers. We shall see how long it takes for the installation crew to show up.

Awesome first post @Kindog 1 ! You will make some people very happy with your report!