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Supercharger - Los Gatos (expanded Jun 2021, 20 Urban stalls)
- Thread starter JoelH
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- California Supercharging USA
Ulmo
Active Member
In the spirit of that, many PG&E on-topic things, but if you would like to move these pictures, I'd be perfectly happy with that too, since they're electricity-centric and not SuperCharger car use centric:
I think these are fantastic pictures.
Truck sucking wire pulling rope through:
Inside the Urban charger pedestal:
That shows great design: it does something I would do, which is tilt the innards, to let stuff fall off and drain (dust, water). It helps with offputting excess heat, too. And, it allows a better angle for the wires coming in at the bottom. Finally, the triangular shape of the angle gives it more strength. Square is always a bit unenlightened, but not entirely.
That is I guess some sort of putty, probably specially made for that purpose. A material such as a putty is important to stop problems spreading such as: bugs, rodents, water, gas, fire, sewer, plants, roots, etc. It's not a cure-all, but it is just a step better. It should be relatively elastic because wire, but relatively filling of the voids because blocking problems. Most problems will still penetrate, but less, and the overall outcome is therefore better.
Directional boring pipes:
Ulmo
Active Member
I'm guessing these are depth measurements after the directional boring machine placed pipes in (PG&E supply or similar; I can't actually tell where the demarc is; see later):
The trench from the manhole cabinet (see later) to the unfilled pad we assumed was for a transformer (I'm not so sure now; I think may be for more cabinets) is done by both boring (above) and trencher (below). Here's the trenched section, with view back to the bored section and SC area:
Manhole, with enough space for a transformer inside! (See later picture below.)
Trenching into Highway 9:
The trench from the manhole cabinet (see later) to the unfilled pad we assumed was for a transformer (I'm not so sure now; I think may be for more cabinets) is done by both boring (above) and trencher (below). Here's the trenched section, with view back to the bored section and SC area:
Manhole, with enough space for a transformer inside! (See later picture below.)
Trenching into Highway 9:
Ulmo
Active Member
Trenching into California Highway 9 continued:
Spot where a power pole might go, trenched to Highway 9:
Existing power poles and wires above where it says a power pole might go:
That says "12KV to T-6776"; since there's two sets of high voltage lines up there, I wonder which one is the 12KV. If I'm not mistaken, the 12KV is the lower of the two sets of high voltage power lines, which means the upper set is higher, but I am not 100% certain what each thing refers to; the 12KV may or may not refer to the upper side of the pole or the lower side of the pole.
What is apparent to me is that they potentially have more than enough eletricity tapping into those wires, however they do it. I'm curious how much future expansion those wires would support as well.
Pulling pull rope from new manhole to existing pad:
Note how much room there is in there! Only half the covers are up; the area in there is full size. A sizeable transformer should fit in there, I think.
Spot where a power pole might go, trenched to Highway 9:
Existing power poles and wires above where it says a power pole might go:
That says "12KV to T-6776"; since there's two sets of high voltage lines up there, I wonder which one is the 12KV. If I'm not mistaken, the 12KV is the lower of the two sets of high voltage power lines, which means the upper set is higher, but I am not 100% certain what each thing refers to; the 12KV may or may not refer to the upper side of the pole or the lower side of the pole.
What is apparent to me is that they potentially have more than enough eletricity tapping into those wires, however they do it. I'm curious how much future expansion those wires would support as well.
Pulling pull rope from new manhole to existing pad:
Note how much room there is in there! Only half the covers are up; the area in there is full size. A sizeable transformer should fit in there, I think.
Ulmo
Active Member
I also spotted Tesla Inc. car and worker there working on the pedestals. I presume they are wiring and provisioning them.
No transformer yet, but they seem to be buttoning up work on everything getting ready for the rest of the processes by government inspectors and the utility.
I overheard the trenching wiring crew saying they have some item(s) in stock for which they need to wait for the inspector to watch while doing whatever they were going to do with those items.
There's lots to do, and lots has been done. By the end of today, a lot more will have been done. There's lots of work left even on wiring; it could be days yet. If they're really installing a new pole, that's a project by itself. But, it could be months or days away from turn on, all depending on government & PG&E.
No transformer yet, but they seem to be buttoning up work on everything getting ready for the rest of the processes by government inspectors and the utility.
I overheard the trenching wiring crew saying they have some item(s) in stock for which they need to wait for the inspector to watch while doing whatever they were going to do with those items.
There's lots to do, and lots has been done. By the end of today, a lot more will have been done. There's lots of work left even on wiring; it could be days yet. If they're really installing a new pole, that's a project by itself. But, it could be months or days away from turn on, all depending on government & PG&E.
TerranApart
Member
Thanks so much for the pictures! Very informative!
You are correct that the lower circuit is the 12kV one.
I'm pretty sure the subtransmission circuit at the top of the pole is 60kV (but using 115kV class insulators).
Ulmo
Active Member
Just now (well, about an hour ago, before TMC crashed): the same company or related who was vacuuming through pull ropes has now blocked traffic on Highway 9, opened some trench to finish it, near where it seems marked for a new pole.
The old tenched area was filled with a concrete (not sure if slurry or regular).
The old tenched area was filled with a concrete (not sure if slurry or regular).
Ulmo
Active Member
This morning I looked, and it seems like a lot of progress happened yesterday! Presumably:
Here’s a picture:
I have a rather poor pet theory based purey on fantasy they are going to install two step down transformers, one to bring down either the 60kv or the 12kv line to a level that could support a future parking lot with two hundred high power chargers, and another transformer to bring THAT down to the whatever the Tesla SuperChargers currently use (I presume something like 3 phase 480VAC).
- Finished digging Hwy. 9 trench
- Laid pipe in that trench
- Inspected by AHJ
- Covered and compacted with appropriate fill type (sand? slurry?)
- Filled with a concrete type (slurry? concrete?)
- Covered with temporary asphalt
- Cleaned up
- Traffic plates left in pile
- Elsewhere in work site in the parking lot, many piles of material and refuse were removed and work area (parking lot) further cleaned up.
Here’s a picture:
I have a rather poor pet theory based purey on fantasy they are going to install two step down transformers, one to bring down either the 60kv or the 12kv line to a level that could support a future parking lot with two hundred high power chargers, and another transformer to bring THAT down to the whatever the Tesla SuperChargers currently use (I presume something like 3 phase 480VAC).
thecloud
As rhythm raced inside, the ship came alive
It's a generic acronym for "authority having jurisdiction." Might be a city inspector, or someone from CalTrans, or elsewhere.
Just what this forum needs is another daft acronym
Ulmo
Active Member
No utility transformer yet.
First time I’ve seen the Urban style pedestals in real life. They are compact!
First time I’ve seen the Urban style pedestals in real life. They are compact!
chibi_kurochan
Member
San Carlos and East Palo Alto just opened with Urban Chargers too, FYI.
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