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Supercharger - Kettleman City, CA (LIVE 15 Nov 2017, 24 V2 + 16 V3 stalls, lounge)
- Thread starter smilepak
- Start date
nwdiver
Well-Known Member
EVSteve
110% Solar Powered
Yea yea blame the iPhone. Autocorrect isn’t what it used to be.
phibetakitten
Mozart lover/dachshund stalker
There was an attendant to keep things orderly, yes. I think that when there were multiple stalls available she would go back inside and help out in the lounge.
We were there yesterday (12/22/18). It was very busy - almost festive a bit of a social gathering. Plenty of dogs as well. At points there were pretty good size lines for the barista
When we drove out only 2 of the 40 stalls were showing available on the app.
Tesla Supercharger Kettleman City - 12/22/18
Especially compared to last year on 12/25/17
Here’s a video from then for comparison:
Tesla Kettleman City Tesla Supercharger WOW!
When we drove out only 2 of the 40 stalls were showing available on the app.
Tesla Supercharger Kettleman City - 12/22/18
Here’s a video from then for comparison:
Tesla Kettleman City Tesla Supercharger WOW!
No, I showed up around 3:30 and left around 4. I got the red X’s spot in the far right of the photos you took. Was paired with that back X.
follow.johnny
FSD Beta Tester
Boxing Day 2018. Ca 15:00 pst. 38 of 40 stalls charging.
suwaneedad
Member
East coast question: are those roofs covering the vehicles at Kettleman solar panels, and if so how ~many Powerpacks are on site to store electrons during offpeak use by vehicles?
Rownolds
High Mileage Member
Yes, all covered with solar panels. If yous guys looks up yous can see the inverters mounted on somes of the poles, tucked up high just below the panels. I went there in March 2018 and the NAV system said there were only 18 out of 40 stalls available, but only 2 stalls were taken. I asked the barista and she said there was maintenance work being done on the panels , and I looked and all the inverters were turned off (Big DC toggle switch visible). She said the full output for 40 stalls is only available if the panels are pumping! I think it's an electric infrastructure limitation, and/or a desire to keep peak demand down. So it seems that, at least for Kettleman, the red bar showing the number of stalls in use is really a white bar showing the number of stalls available, and in this case it actually reflected the number of stalls that *could* be occupied and give full power (or rather, half, considering the power gets split when they're all full), since you could park at any of the stalls (i.e. none were labeled 'out of order'). I have no idea what would have happened if 40 cars had showed up.
yes, there are batteries, but not a lot (according to the barista). They are behind the fence that hides the transformers.
AMPd
Well-Known Member
That doesn’t sound right, why would the city and utility allow building a supercharger site with the hopes of not all of the stalls being used at once?
If there was an infrastructure limitation then tesla would only be allowed to build the number of stalls that can be used.
That's actually common. It's my experience that many supercharger sites are limited. They cannot provide the total theoretical power if all stalls are in use. That's not to say that not all stalls can be used. There can be a car charging at every stall, the total power of the entire site is just capped. That actually makes perfect sense as it's better to have a place to plug in and get a coffee, rather than having to wait in line. Even if the charge rate is reduced, it's far more preferable than having to wait in line. There is also a good chance that even both cars charging at a stall pair, they don't need the max power. Both might be at a higher state of charge.
The display in the car about stalls being in use and available isn't always right. I've seen it being wrong many times.
AMPd
Well-Known Member
Supercharger sites not providing max power at all times is nothing new, however what I was replying to is the baristas claim that the site was built with less capacity and the solar panels supposedly bridge that gap
There are 20 supercharger cabinets serving 40 stalls so if those cabinets draw 135kW then the site theoretically should have the capacity to draw 2700kW from the utility (not counting any other power draws)
Now of course there’s no way for us to tell if the site can actually draw that max when all 40 stalls are in use.
If the barista is right, the utility is providing less than 2700 and the rest is being made up by the panels.
Maybe, but I just don’t think that’s correct.
I think there's a few things that got a little lost in the mail that, at the risk of being pedantic, are probably worth clarifying if for no other reason than trying to minimize information creep along the the internet 'telephone game'.
--From a power generation standpoint the solar canopy could only service a few cars at best. Its main purpose is, honestly, marketing...its secondary purpose is to offset peak draw, mostly in the form of helping to charge the battery packs.
--The in-car stall occupancy is not site specific; for all sites it is binary. If there's a Tesla plugged in it's red, otherwise it's not(***). If there's actual work being done on the pedestals such that they're offline, the in-car occupancy somewhat(?) reliably reduces max stalls. If there's more temporary non-supercharger construction work going on (such as on a solar canopy) where the stalls are blocked off more for safety and personnel access than anything else, the in-car occupancy will not reflect actual availability and you can indeed get a false positive on the number of available stalls.
--Charging power doesn't quite get split in half across paired stalls. There's plenty of info on how it works, but the short story is that the second car gets at least ~30kW of power regardless what the first car wants, which can still leave the first car ~100kW.
***There's an uncorrelated error with the system that sometimes over-reports occupancy above and beyond the lag between someone plugging/unplugging and that information becoming available on the system. To my knowledge, nobody has cracked the Konami Code on this one yet. As an example, Tejon was reporting 3 of 24 available for me last week when I pulled in...to my delight it was less than half full and I easily found an unpaired plug.
I was surprised when I showed up here last Wednesday, day after xmas. The in car SC availability showed 6 of 40 available, when I got there it was more like 8-9/40. I pulled into a middle stall (because I didn't see the 4-5 all available in the row along the back wall) and it was all pretty full - so I didn't feel like I was being a d..parking next to someone when that was the ONLY spot around free. Anyway, I figured it was going to cost me, but the car started charging at it said 113 kWh for the first 12 minutes, then it tapered down to 68 kWh, then 58 kWh once we got to 250 miles full. So, I was pretty impressed that for the first half of the charging cycle the kWh was as high as it was, with as many cars as there were.
And, about five minutes after I started charging all the free rows in the back were full. So, Kettleman is probably where it is because it lies right on-top of a nuclear reactor or something.
And, about five minutes after I started charging all the free rows in the back were full. So, Kettleman is probably where it is because it lies right on-top of a nuclear reactor or something.
That doesn't sound out of the ordinary. General consensus is that it takes some amount of time (like, a few minutes) for the system to update occupancy. With 30+ cars charging it is not unreasonable to imagine 2-3 cars leaving at about the same time, so it is not unreasonable that your data was 2-3 cars 'behind'.
If you're worried about being a creeper, don't be. We're all there for the same reason. I mean, its a little weird to park right next to someone in an otherwise empty supercharger, but otherwise its all good.
If you're worried about being paired (if you were getting 113kw you weren't), then you need to up your game on how pairing works. There's plenty of info out there.
If it helps, in my experience at KC human nature steers people to the south entrance (because it is more obvious as you're approaching) and the front row or center nose-to-tail chargers (because they're closer to the lounge...and perhaps more 'protected' from The Wilds of Kettleman...), which leads to the back row (north of the lounge) being less full and thus easier to find an unpaired stall. So, I always drive past the lounge and enter at the east side of the lot.
BUT...at least based on my data set of 1, if there's a line it forms along the enclosures on the west side of the lot. If you're cognizant on final approach that there might be a line, just aim for the south entrance. If the line is long it spills out onto the side street in a self-evident manner (to anyone not oblivious and/or nefarious, anyway), but if the line is less than ~4 cars you might not be able to see folks waiting from the main street. So if there is a line and you entered from the east you would not only have to do the drive-of-shame past everyone else that's waiting, a few other people may sneak ahead of you.
Just to educate the uneducated (me), if all stalls are full except one, and I pull into THAT empty stall, wouldn't I be paired with someone?
nwdiver
Well-Known Member
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