Supercharger - Frederick, MD

[gnuarm]

Hello! Just saw this thread and it's a topic I've been wondering about for months (and asking around about, to no avail).

I live in Brunswick, Maryland (about 20 minutes west of Frederick). We're part of Frederick County. Right now, whenever I have a reason to go to downtown Frederick for a while and need to charge my Model S, I try to make use of the destination chargers graciously provided by the Paul Mitchell Temple. They have 100 amp service going to them, which is great for my car, since it's equipped with "dual chargers" that can take full advantage of that. (And they're a great place to get a haircut. You get better prices than salons because they're a school for people learning to work in salons.)

Unfortunately, because of the placement of those 2 parking spots in the back of their building -- they often get blocked if someone needs to unload things there. And additionally, I've started noticing more people using them in recent months. Used to be, they seemed to be kind of a secret. If I parked there to use one, I got questions from employees who wanted to know how long it took to charge a Tesla on one, etc. (Got the idea they didn't see a whole lot of use.) But now, I've had to pass them by and do something different on a couple of occasions, because they were both occupied.

When I look them up on Plugshare it shows as "private". You are saying Paul Mitchel Temple lets anyone use these chargers?

My guess was that maybe that new Royal Farms on Buckeystown Pike would be the site for a new Supercharger station, but seeing they've just opened and looking at the layout there? I'm not sure they left much room for them to be added?

I'm hoping they put some in the FSK mall parking lot near all the restaurants and the Wawa gas station on Rt 355. If I'm going to wait to charge I'd like to be able to do something. But I suppose spending 20-30 minutes to put enough range on to get back down the road is no big deal.

I have to say, I find it rather irritating that the Mom's Market on Buckeytown Pike seems to have decided not to bother making the effort to get their Chademo charger to work properly with Teslas again. Long ago, they were (I believe) the first shop in the Frederick area to provide free EV charging for people. And clearly, they used to support Teslas because a big sign in their window instructed you to go inside if you needed to borrow their Tesla Chademo adapter they kept behind the counter. But for the last year or so, I've never been able to get that charger to work with my car. It starts communicating for several seconds and then throws an error code and shuts off. They repeatedly told me they had it "scheduled to be repaired" -- but nothing seemed to come of it. And the check-in apps like PlugShare indicate that for the last 6 months or so, nobody's been charging on it besides Nissan Leafs and Chevy Bolts and such.

Yeah, that's my experience too. The first time I tried it they were very helpful but seemed a bit unknowledgeable about it requiring not only the employee, but a manager to come out and view the error message. The second time it had a Leaf on it who's owner didn't return when the charge was complete with no way to send them a message. My third attempt didn't work either with the same error message, but this time an employee just said it's funny and works with some cars and doesn't with others. Couldn't tell if they meant Teslas, or just EVs in general. It may well be that the adapter is hosed. This is the only level 3 adapter in 25 miles, so Frederick is a bit of a waste land for BEVs at the moment.

 

[gnuarm]

Did you notice if the Paul Mitchell temple has a separate electric meter nearby? Or does it simply go into the buildings service. I had noticed the Ocean City Destination chargers at the Holiday inn were actually on a separate service. Done by Tesla? with your comment that they were 100A each is good, unless there networked. Tysons were Tesla units on 100A gen 1, when they upgraded to gen two they fall as more people plug in.

There is a bank of 3 destination chargers in Leesburg, VA at a hotel I had to use a few times to get back to central VA. Over Thanks giving there was one car on it when I pulled up so I didn't get full rate and then a third pulled up who only needed to go another 15 or 20 miles to get home but just wanted to make sure he had enough. He lowered the charge rate to about 6 kW which is only 18 mph or so. He only stayed 10 minutes and continued on. I ended up sitting in the hotel lobby for an hour or so and fired up my laptop, likely to get on the forums here, lol. They put in a Supercharger in Haymarket (Rt 15 and Rt 66) which mostly solves my charging problems as long as I don't mind charging in both directions. A Supercharger in Frederick would really be the ticket since I could be sure to have enough range to reach it while Haymarket may or may not be reachable depending on how much driving I did while in Frederick. Plugging into 120 VAC in Frederick would help too, but it just seems a bother to get friends to let me park in their driveways close enough to plug in... etc. I mean, jeeze, I paid more for this car than I did for any of my houses and I have to beg for electricity to drive it!!! lol

 

[gnuarm]

I didn't pay real close attention, but I *think* I remember it appearing to have its own electrical drop? In any case, I'm assuming it's a 100 amp total service supplied to both "heads" of the destination charger, so you only charge at 50% of the total amperage if 2 vehicles are attached simultaneously? (I think that's how those work? If one car finishes charging, the full available power is given back to the remaining car that's still charging.)

If they are wired on a single circuit and have the comms connection between them it does work this way.

Also, I'm not really sure if this is true or not? But I had an electrician visit my home in Brunswick when I was trying to get a quote for installing a high power circuit in my garage for my own car. She was from out in Mt. Airy, so that makes me a *little* less certain she knows all the ins and outs for Frederick County. But she told me Potomac Edison (our local power company) is the only one in Maryland who doesn't allow you to add a second circuit drop for something like an EV charger on a residential property. They only allow one drop and one meter per physical street address. If true, that bums me out because my service panel at home is pretty full already. I was thinking I'd like to just add a separate meter and 100 amp service for my charger -- but guess that's not happening.

I don't know for sure, but I believe code issues are statewide. So this guy likely knows the rules for the entire state.

You likely would be better off with a single drop anyway. Billing is done separately for each meter and there are numerous fixed charges which you would have to pay twice even if you aren't using the other drop. You can have your service upgraded, but that is not cheap either. My house is 100 amp service and many years ago my dad looked into upgrading to 200 watts and it was going to be $1500. Now that would likely be $3000 or more. For you to go to something above 200 watts would be money for the install plus more money each month to the power company for the higher service fixed charges.

They can always pull a branch circuit off the main panel. My dad added a heat pump and they installed a separate breaker panel beside the main panel with a 50 amp breaker. I'm pretty sure it doesn't go through the main 100 amp breaker. Your electrician should be able to tell you about your options.

 

[Nilnoc]

I periodically check this report from Frederick County government:

FREDERICK COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PERMITS AND INSPECTIONS MONTHLY BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONS REPORT

No dice through November 30, 2018.

 

[bluetinc]

Hey, just a quick note that I used the Chademo at MOMs just the other day, and a few times over the last year and it works great for me. I do have my own adapter, so perhaps the issue here is that their firmware just needs to be updated in theirs? If you are ever in the area and want to experiment, I work nearby and would be happy to track down where the problem is, and help MOMs get it fixed if it's the adapter.
Peter

I have to say, I find it rather irritating that the Mom's Market on Buckeytown Pike seems to have decided not to bother making the effort to get their Chademo charger to work properly with Teslas again. Long ago, they were (I believe) the first shop in the Frederick area to provide free EV charging for people. And clearly, they used to support Teslas because a big sign in their window instructed you to go inside if you needed to borrow their Tesla Chademo adapter they kept behind the counter. But for the last year or so, I've never been able to get that charger to work with my car. It starts communicating for several seconds and then throws an error code and shuts off. They repeatedly told me they had it "scheduled to be repaired" -- but nothing seemed to come of it. And the check-in apps like PlugShare indicate that for the last 6 months or so, nobody's been charging on it besides Nissan Leafs and Chevy Bolts and such.

 

[mociaf9]

I periodically check this report from Frederick County government:

FREDERICK COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PERMITS AND INSPECTIONS MONTHLY BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONS REPORT

No dice through November 30, 2018.

I don't believe that they'll include building permits from incorporated cities though. The City of Frederick, MD has its own permitting system. So if the site is strictly within the city limits, it wouldn't ever be listed in that report even if the permit was already applied for.

 

[Nilnoc]

Right, so I check City of Frederick building permits too. I search for 'Tesla' since there does not seem to be anyway to list out all the new/open permits.

 

[gnuarm]

I don't believe that they'll include building permits from incorporated cities though. The City of Frederick, MD has its own permitting system. So if the site is strictly within the city limits, it wouldn't ever be listed in that report even if the permit was already applied for.

Much easier to check supercharge.info They seem to have all the skinny on every Supercharger in every status including permitting.

I did my usual trip from central VA to Frederick and back with a couple of days of local driving. I charged in Haymarket until I had about 220 miles and still didn't make it back to Haymarket without charging in Leesburg at a destination charger for over half an hour. lol I guess next time I'll get a bigger charge before I continue heading north. 250 or bust! The cold does really seem to whack the range if you do a lot of short trips. I think I only put an actual 50 miles on the car while in Frederick and it's 50 to 55 each way, so 155 miles was too far with a 220 mile charge. Wow! Most of that driving is on a 55 MPH road too!

A Supercharger in Frederick would work so much better so I could charge once instead of twice.

 

[mociaf9]

Much easier to check supercharge.info They seem to have all the skinny on every Supercharger in every status including permitting.

They have the skinny mostly because they got it from people posting it on this site first (at least for US and Canadian superchargers, I'm not sure about international sites). Occasionally some info is either posted directly to supercharge.info's forum or in other places first, but that's the exception not the rule. So, assuming the Frederick supercharger stays true to the general rule, someone will find some relevant documents about it and post it in this thread. Then supercharge.info will be updated to show the new location.

 

[MXFan]

Then supercharge.info will be updated to show the new location.

Correct!

 

[gnuarm]

I hate not being part of the process to bring Frederick into the 21st century.

 

[mociaf9]

I periodically check this report from Frederick County government:

FREDERICK COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PERMITS AND INSPECTIONS MONTHLY BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONS REPORT

No dice through November 30, 2018.

Building permit found for 12 Tesla supercharging stations at Francis Scott Key mall.

Permit #: 184159
Issued: 2018-11-28
Site Location: 5500 BUCKEYSTOWN PIKE SUITE EV
Permit Description: INSTALL ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATION IN FSK MALL PARKING LOT.
-----

That it is in fact a Tesla supercharger was first a deduction from the project valuation ($160,000) and then confirmed along with the # of stalls through searching ancillary info in another database [search Project Number 18710 in this database]. Unfortunately I couldn't find any info on which section of the parking lot it would be in, so people will just have to keep their eyes open for signs of construction activity. From looking at the map, I hope it's on the JCPenny side. Maybe here? But that's just a guess.

@BlueShift @Chuq

 

[gnuarm]

Building permit found for 12 Tesla supercharging stations at Francis Scott Key mall.

Permit #: 184159
Issued: 2018-11-28
Site Location: 5500 BUCKEYSTOWN PIKE SUITE EV
Permit Description: INSTALL ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATION IN FSK MALL PARKING LOT.
-----

That it is in fact a Tesla supercharger was first a deduction from the project valuation ($160,000) and then confirmed along with the # of stalls through searching ancillary info in another database [search Project Number 18710 in this database]. Unfortunately I couldn't find any info on which section of the parking lot it would be in, so people will just have to keep their eyes open for signs of construction activity. From looking at the map, I hope it's on the JCPenny side. Maybe here? But that's just a guess.

@BlueShift @Chuq

Fantastic!!! I really couldn't think of a better place in Frederick other than possibly the Costco, who doesn't seem to be interested in giving up even 12 parking spaces. I've never seen any sign of Costco installing any sort of EVSE.

I'm hoping the location will be more around the east side so it is close to the gas station. Someone pointed out that 24 hour bathrooms is rather important for trips. Without a 24 hour restaurant the Wawa is the only bathroom after 10 or so.
Near Wawa

Or this is closer to the Panera which is a spot I often visit. It also has great visibility for anyone coming in that entrance from Rt 355. I think this may not be a small factor in choosing the locations. I think they want them to be as visible as possible.

So it seems to take anywhere from 2 to 4 months to actually start construction and another 2 months to complete it if my impression is accurate. Although the new Supercharger in Annapolis seems to be taking some significant extra time for construction.

This Supercharger will be a huge improvement for me. I spend time in Frederick and there really is no other place to charge without driving 25 miles.

 

[gnuarm]

I let supercharge.info know about this.

 

[Jerry Ham]

gnuarm, just so that you know - in the post above from mociaf9 - the "@" followed by BlueShift already let Supercharge.info know. BlueShift runs that site and information from posts here directed to him get added to the database.

 

[Nilnoc]

Super exciting news! Thank you mociaf9. Maybe a ribbon cutting mid 2019.

 

[Reddy Kilowatt]

Francis Scott Key Mall, 5500 Buckeystown Pike was just posted as the SC site in Fredrick Just off 85. This is one exit down from 270/15 interchange. Im sure 70 can hit it real quick also.

supercharge.info

On the supercharger.info site. if the link doesn't work.

 

[Chuq]

Francis Scott Key Mall, 5500 Buckeystown Pike was just posted as the SC site in Fredrick

Yep, that info came from this thread just a few posts up

 

[Kindog]

Much easier to check supercharge.info They seem to have all the skinny on every Supercharger in every status including permitting.

I did my usual trip from central VA to Frederick and back with a couple of days of local driving. I charged in Haymarket until I had about 220 miles and still didn't make it back to Haymarket without charging in Leesburg at a destination charger for over half an hour. lol I guess next time I'll get a bigger charge before I continue heading north. 250 or bust! The cold does really seem to whack the range if you do a lot of short trips. I think I only put an actual 50 miles on the car while in Frederick and it's 50 to 55 each way, so 155 miles was too far with a 220 mile charge. Wow! Most of that driving is on a 55 MPH road too!

A Supercharger in Frederick would work so much better so I could charge once instead of twice.

Fantastic!!! I really couldn't think of a better place in Frederick other than possibly the Costco, who doesn't seem to be interested in giving up even 12 parking spaces. I've never seen any sign of Costco installing any sort of EVSE.

I'm hoping the location will be more around the east side so it is close to the gas station. Someone pointed out that 24 hour bathrooms is rather important for trips. Without a 24 hour restaurant the Wawa is the only bathroom after 10 or so.
Near Wawa

Or this is closer to the Panera which is a spot I often visit. It also has great visibility for anyone coming in that entrance from Rt 355. I think this may not be a small factor in choosing the locations. I think they want them to be as visible as possible.

So it seems to take anywhere from 2 to 4 months to actually start construction and another 2 months to complete it if my impression is accurate. Although the new Supercharger in Annapolis seems to be taking some significant extra time for construction.

This Supercharger will be a huge improvement for me. I spend time in Frederick and there really is no other place to charge without driving 25 miles.

I used the Frederick County site project search using the number 18710 and viola! Still no exact location data, but mentions installing additional lighting and some shrubs/trees as a screen. Perhaps it will go to a portion of the FSK mall lot that is darker than usual? This is like a scavenger hunt.

 

[Big Earl]

I used the Frederick County site project search using the number 18710 and viola! Still no exact location data, but mentions installing additional lighting and some shrubs/trees as a screen. Perhaps it will go to a portion of the FSK mall lot that is darker than usual? This is like a scavenger hunt.

Almost all Supercharger installations get their own site lighting and landscaping. The exceptions are sites in parking garages, some well-lit surface lots and places with strict regulations that don't allow additional lighting.

My location guess: Somewhere along the Spectrum Drive perimeter of the mall parking lot. There is a nice 13-space location adjacent to BJ's Brew House and Applebee's that would fit the bill nicely.