You can install our site as a web app on your iOS device by utilizing the Add to Home Screen feature in Safari. Please see this thread for more details on this.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
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 ICE from Folsom, CA to Fresno and back
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.
I don't have the chademo adapter . I am staying in a hotel with no power outlets. So going back to harris ranch is quite a deviation. Maybe someone can take me to a NEMA 14-50 and then drop me off later to pick up the car. DAMN!
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.
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.
View attachment 108092
View attachment 108093
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.
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.
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!
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.