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Supercharger - Fresno, CA (6709 N Riverside, LIVE 10 Jan 2016, 10 V2 stalls)
- Thread starter ddimit
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- California Supercharging USA
Good promotion for the new Fresno Supercharger. I would only quibble with this sentence in the article:
"The only other Tesla Supercharging station in the central San Joaquin Valley is at Harris Ranch in Coalinga near Interstate,"
I consider Manteca to be in the central San Joaquin Valley, since the valley continues over a hundred miles north of there.
"The only other Tesla Supercharging station in the central San Joaquin Valley is at Harris Ranch in Coalinga near Interstate,"
I consider Manteca to be in the central San Joaquin Valley, since the valley continues over a hundred miles north of there.
I would watch here. I have a feeling its close, probably final inspections. it might well be done in a week. Usually when they get to this stage its pretty quick.
damn, this is moving slow. I need to go to fresno 1 week from now and this may not be ready in time. May need to go on my ICEfrom Folsom, CA to Fresno and back
Heh. I'm going to Fresno tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.
My general strategy coming from the San Francisco Bay Area is to range charge in Manteca on the way down, then use the CHAdeMO chargers at Fresno State or Fashion Fair to add enough range so I can get back up to the Manteca Supercharger. If, when ready to leave Fresno, I didn't think I could make it, my backup plan was to head over to Harris Ranch (which is closer to Fresno, but backtracking) and then head northbound. The Manteca strategy might work for you. I drive an 85D.
(OK, I lied a little bit there...I have used the CHAdeMO chargers but more recently it's been more convenient for me to plug into the dryer outlet at my parents' house.)
cpa
Active Member
Spoke with PG&E today
The electrical crew from PG&E was connecting their feed to the transformer this afternoon. They informed me that they will get the feed connected all the way to the meter, which is located inside the arbor-type facility that houses the charger stacks.
Once they are done, they notify the meter department, and someone shows up with the electrical meter and snaps it in place, and flips the switch on their side of the meter. Meter installation could be this afternoon; it could be sometime in the next several days.
The cables have been installed! I noticed that the rear covers (facing the street and not facing the parking spots) had been removed for some reason. It did not appear that any of the construction crew was there.
Finally, the gate to secure the charging stacks and electrical hookups still needs to be installed. I guess that this is likely the last step to be taken before Tesla comes out to test each of the stalls. So, it looks like opening is imminent, and I am hopeful it will be some time next week!
For all you electrical engineering sorts out there: The PG&E crew said that their feed into the transformer was 12,000 volts, and the transformer stepped down the current to 480/277. From there the wiring goes into the enclosure to the meter.
So, how does a 480V AC feed ten thirsty batteries if the total power use could max out at around 5(135kW), or 675 kW? Six hundred seventy-five thousand watts divided by 480 volts gives about 1,400 amperes to attain this power. So, clearly I am missing a valuable piece of the puzzle. Does the Tesla enclosure have yet another set of transformers to step-up the voltage before converting it to DC through the charger stacks? Or is my rudimentary calculation a gross error? Or both? :redface:
They did not teach us this basic principle in accounting school.
The electrical crew from PG&E was connecting their feed to the transformer this afternoon. They informed me that they will get the feed connected all the way to the meter, which is located inside the arbor-type facility that houses the charger stacks.
Once they are done, they notify the meter department, and someone shows up with the electrical meter and snaps it in place, and flips the switch on their side of the meter. Meter installation could be this afternoon; it could be sometime in the next several days.
The cables have been installed! I noticed that the rear covers (facing the street and not facing the parking spots) had been removed for some reason. It did not appear that any of the construction crew was there.
Finally, the gate to secure the charging stacks and electrical hookups still needs to be installed. I guess that this is likely the last step to be taken before Tesla comes out to test each of the stalls. So, it looks like opening is imminent, and I am hopeful it will be some time next week!
For all you electrical engineering sorts out there: The PG&E crew said that their feed into the transformer was 12,000 volts, and the transformer stepped down the current to 480/277. From there the wiring goes into the enclosure to the meter.
So, how does a 480V AC feed ten thirsty batteries if the total power use could max out at around 5(135kW), or 675 kW? Six hundred seventy-five thousand watts divided by 480 volts gives about 1,400 amperes to attain this power. So, clearly I am missing a valuable piece of the puzzle. Does the Tesla enclosure have yet another set of transformers to step-up the voltage before converting it to DC through the charger stacks? Or is my rudimentary calculation a gross error? Or both? :redface:
They did not teach us this basic principle in accounting school.
Thanks for the update, cpa! This isn't going to be up before my trip tomorrow, but maybe next time.
I'm wondering what that switch looks like, given the amount of power it has to carry. I'm pretty sure it's bigger than the lightswitch on my wall.
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I don't have the chademo adapter
There are J1772s at Fresno State and Fashion Fair too. Not as fast as a CHAdeMO or Supercharger but better than nothing.
Or maybe you can find something on Plugshare. Remember you don't need to fully charge your car, just get enough range to get out of town and up to Manteca.
The Best Western Plus on Shaw Ave. will let you use their Tesla charger for a fee, not sure how fast it is.
Just trying to come up with ideas for you since I had to work through this process last summer.
If you're really lucky you might be one of the first users of the Fresno Supercharger who knows?
Cottonwood
Roadster#433, Model S#S37
It's a little more complicated to deal with the 480 Volt power calculations with some square roots of 3, but in reality, the Tesla Superchargers just use the 277 Volt Line to Neutral connections in the 480/277 setup [277 = 480/sqrt(3)], and with 3-phase power there are 3 of those.
The Superchargers are about 90% efficient converting AC to DC, so that means to put 135 kW DC out, each Supercharger Cabinet needs 150 kW AC in. At 277 Volts, that is about 540 Amps, but remember we have 3, 277-Volt phases, so that is 180 Amps per phase. With 5 Supercharger Cabinets, that is then 5*180 or 900 Amps per phase. That big distribution cabinet is just a giant circuit breaker box and its big, copper bus's are rated at 2,000 Amps per phase, so it all works.
Superchargers use a lot of power, huge by home standards, but not huge by utility standards. At many Superchargers next to hotels, the Supercharger transformer is usually a comparable size/rating to the transformer powering the hotel. Still carrying all that current takes some big wires. Here are pictures of the transformer and Distribution Cabinet connections at the Farmington Supercharger and it only has 2 Supercharger Cabinets and 4 Charging Stalls. Each of those cables has a cross section that is the equivalent of a solid copper rod 0.7 inches in diameter, 500 mcm cable. For Fresno, there are probably 6 of those 500 mcm cables in parallel for each phase.
cpa
Active Member
Thanks, C! I was kinda thinking that our old friend, the square root of three, somehow wormed its way into the equation, but sadly I was struggling. The PG&E crew would not allow me to photograph anything--even the nameplate that was inside the transformer box. In fact, the media showed up to augment a news segment with some footage of the installation, and the workers had to call dispatch to notify management and permit the video guy to film. The cables were comprised of many small strands of steel threaded together terminating with giant contacts to be torqued onto the posts. (Forgive me if I am using the incorrect terms.) In trying to equate the cable sizes in your photo to what they showed me, I would guess that the diameters are roughly identical.
Cottonwood
Roadster#433, Model S#S37
You are welcome.
The great thing about Cell Phone cameras is that we always have them with us. The bad thing is that the wide angle lens forces us to get close to get descent pictures. A Digital SLR with a moderate zoom would have let you take all the clear pics you wanted, perhaps without them noticing. PG&E is working in a spot visible from public spaces, they cannot control what pictures are taken...
I doubt that the cables were steel. It is more likely that they were aluminum or tinned copper. The cables are made of many small strands to make them somewhat flexible. I looked up the current carrying capacity of THWN-2-insulated, 500-mcm, copper cable and it is about 500 Amps per cable. It looks like the Farmington site was planning for expansion. Aluminum the same size and insulation is rated at 450 Amps. 180 Amps times 1.25 is 225 Amps, so they probably used 225 Amp breakers per Supercharger. 225 Amps * 5 is 1,125 Amps. I bet that they used at least 4 parallel 500 mcm cables or equivalent.
I hope that Fresno comes on-line soon! Good Luck!!
Thanks to all for the updates and discussion. My son and I stopped by the site around mid day today, and as expected there wasn't any real chance since cpa's last pictures. But what's there looks pretty close to done!
Long time reader, first time commenter. I live in Fresno and have been a Tesla enthusiast for sever years. A few years back (and a few times since) I recommended this Supercharger location via the Tesla website. I have no idea if they heeded my advice or just chose the location because it is obvious, but today I saw 10 Supercharger stalls nearly complete in the parking lot of a newly developed strip mall on Herndon Ave and the 99 ramp. There is still a plastic covering over each Supercharger, but all of the infrastructure seems to be in place, so I imagine they will be charging Teslas very soon.
Not sure yet how to make the picture bigger, but anyways, it's confirmed; Supercharges in Fresno!
Not sure yet how to make the picture bigger, but anyways, it's confirmed; Supercharges in Fresno!
Congratulations on your first post! If you read upthread (like the last 150 posts), you'll see all the discussion, analysis, etc. we've been doing of the Fresno Supercharger site over the last several months, including some "on the ground" progress reports over the last few weeks. Nobody here knows exactly Tesla's rationale for picking this location, or to what extent your (or anyone else's) suggestions might have influenced the decision process, but there are many of us both within and outside of Fresno who are happy about this. Hoping they finish this up soon!
eye.surgeon
Active Member
There's an article in the Fresno Bee today about the supercharger station. The print is almost verbatim from the Business journal article, but there is a big picture also.
DLM270
#7773
GREAT!! I'm glad to see it finally going in, but now that my son has moved to southern California, I will not be needing the Supercharger that I have been requesting in Fresno for nearly 3 years. Now I need one in Murrieta or Temecula. :>)
A life saver...
I live in Stockton and travel to Porterville every week or so. (I travel about 40,000 miles a year, in all...) This is going to be a life saver for me. I've got a 90D, but "Manteca to Porterville to Manteca" just ain't cutting it... I've been begging for a Fresno (preferably North Fresno) for a year now... I am SOOOO excited!
This opens up the 99 to Tesla owners. Period.
I live in Stockton and travel to Porterville every week or so. (I travel about 40,000 miles a year, in all...) This is going to be a life saver for me. I've got a 90D, but "Manteca to Porterville to Manteca" just ain't cutting it... I've been begging for a Fresno (preferably North Fresno) for a year now... I am SOOOO excited!
This opens up the 99 to Tesla owners. Period.
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