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Supercharger - Kettleman City, CA (LIVE 15 Nov 2017, 24 V2 + 16 V3 stalls, lounge)

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I doubt it, but aren't they in handi-cap parking stalls? (So not really available for general use, unless you want to risk getting ticketd.)
Yes they are, which I’ve always thought was odd. The message seems to be that if you are going to park in the handicapped space you are going to be in the lounge for many hours so an HPWC charge rate will be adequate for you. Which is odd.
Pardon my ignorance, but can roadsters even use HPWCs?
THere is a very smart Roadster owner in Vermont, @hcsharp , who makes adaptors that allow a Roadster to charge from a Tesla HPWC. I have one. It’s beautifully made.

However...there are very few Roadster owners who have handicapped parking space permits. You need a reasonable level of agility and flexibility to get in and out of a Roadster.
 
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Is someone really going to sit there for hours just to avoid a couple of dollars in fees??? WOW !! :confused:

Gee, Lloyd, you assume facts not in evidence.

I could think of a couple of reasons off hand why someone with an S,X, or 3 would prefer to use the HPWC instead of the SC.

--Spending the night at the Best Western, and would rather charge overnight at the HPWC than have to plug in and move once charging is complete.

--The need for any number of reasons to remain in Kettleman City for a lengthy time and a 2-3 hour charge at a HPWC would be adequate to continue. (I know it is Kettleman City, Lloyd, but we have family at the central coast and we occasionally meet there for lunch at Bravo.)
 
I visited the Kettleman City site for the first time today (Monday) in the mid afternoon. At first glance it is really impressive - a large site completely dedicated to Tesla supercharging, with 40 stalls and hardly any in use: 1 other when I arrived, 4-5 when I left. Large solar arrays shade most of the stalls. There were also two L2 cables right in front of the entrance if anybody should have a use for them. Inside was a nice lounge area for waiting. Wifi, comfortable couches, vending machines, restrooms, a small giftshop with Tesla swag.

But then you notice two (hopefully temporary) drawbacks. First, it's a bit of a walk down the hill to the restaurants, particularly the sit-down place at the other end of the road.

More interestingly, while monitoring my car on my phone I noticed the charging power fluctuating widely despite being at about 50% charge. When my 90D should have been absorbing at least 60-70 kW, it fell down into the teens, at one point only 2 kW. And no, I wasn't sharing with anybody.

The continuous random variations looked vaguely familiar, and then it hit me. The power from my home PV array varies in just the same way on a partly cloudy day. And there were indeed scattered cumulus clouds intermittently shading the site. Could Tesla be playing site load management games, limiting the total Supercharger load to the PV array output to minimize utility demand charges?

I'll have to count the panels and do the calculations, but intuitively the site PV array seemed about the right size to be supplying the 4-5 cars that were actively charging. Obviously they will have to draw *something* from the grid to support twenty active 120 kW charging pairs when traffic at the site picks up -- to say nothing of charging at night. So I presume this is only a temporary state of affairs. But for now, you will probably get a faster charge at one of the two existing supercharging sites to the south along I-5 (Buttonwillow and Bakersfield - only one exit apart!), both with shorter walks to places to sit down and eat. Or, of course, Harris Ranch to the north, with great steaks at the restaurant.
 
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But then you notice two (hopefully temporary) drawbacks. First, it's a bit of a walk down the hill to the restaurants, particularly the sit-down place at the other end of the road.
Yes, it is a “bit of a walk” to the local restaurants. About 1 minute to the Dennys and Carls Junior. 2 minutes to Solarios Bar and Grill. 5 minutes to the Jack in the Box and Taco Bell and Starbucks across Hwy 41. 10 minutes to the In-and-Out Burger. Good to stretch your legs after sitting for hours driving. I do not consider that a “drawback”.

I do not expect new restaurants to be built immediately adjacent to the Supercharger location considering how many there are so close by. If you have a disability that prevents you from walking that far a few minutes, Harris Ranch may be better for you, as you noted. But it is still about a 1 minute walk to the Harris Ranch restaurant from the Supercharger stalls.

I have charged at Kettleman City several times now and have not noticed the power level fluctuations you describe. Perhaps when you were there the local utility was having issues. I do not believe that Tesla is trying to economize by limiting the power level to what the solar array can provide at any given moment. That would be absurd.
 
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I believe that Kettleman is a prototype, to detemine how solar works for large charging stations. The lounge is also the realization of a idea. Give Tesla owners a place to hang out while charging.

I bet Tesla is gathering tons of data from this place.

Might be some issues for Tesla to sort out, as this is a first, however it is so far above whatever any other EV producer has done that it pretty much sets the bar.

I made a special effort to go there instead of Harris ranch. A totally different experience, and perhaps the future of large superchargers. Coffee was excellent and the baristas had a great attitude which made the lounge all the better.
 
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