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Supercharger - Vernon, BC

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It does indeed seem that the Vernon Supercharger and flo installation is complete! Except for the small matter of connecting to the power grid, that is. The pad for the transformer from BC Hydro is empty, and there is no meter.

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Other than that, though:

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There's nearly an individual transformer for every piece of equipment there. That is bizarre. The Flo chargers are 480V, the Tesla equipment should be 480V as well. What am I missing? Is Tesla running on 600V?

Good point. I wonder if this is in preparation to boost the v3 250 kw chargers to 300+ kw in the future! Maybe some future consideration is being piped in!

And once again, @PoweredByRain, well done with the photography. Excellent and very clear shots.
 
There's nearly an individual transformer for every piece of equipment there. That is bizarre. The Flo chargers are 480V, the Tesla equipment should be 480V as well. What am I missing? Is Tesla running on 600V?

Tesla typically installs buck boost transformers on V2 sites to crank everything up to 504 volts, which is apparently the maximum allowable voltage. This might be the first time I've seen this on a V3 installation and it's also interesting that they're on the Flo units.

@PoweredByRain any chance you can get a picture of the data plates on the white transformers for the Flo chargers and also the ones for the Superchargers? I'm curious what the in and out voltages are.
 
I don't have photos from Vernon but the Red Deer County V3 installed in December 2019 also has transformers that look the same. The equipment consists of a Supercharger cabinet and the transformer for every 4 stalls, and two Square D cabinets (one marked "Individual disconnecting means inside" and the other marked "Main circuit breaker").

I would imagine most of the Canadian V3 Superchargers at least in Western Canada will have this as this was in the first batch along with the Trans-Canada highway Superchargers.
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Edit: The labels in the OP photos aren't legible, but this label appears similar to the Supercharger label (no black area on the label) but different than the Flo chargers (black area on the label).
This doesn't include the extra charger identification badges.
 
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I don't have photos from Vernon but the Red Deer County V3 installed in December 2019 also has transformers that look the same. The equipment consists of a Supercharger cabinet and the transformer for every 4 stalls, and two Square D cabinets (one marked "Individual disconnecting means inside" and the other marked "Main circuit breaker").

I would imagine most of the Canadian V3 Superchargers at least in Western Canada will have this as this was in the first batch along with the Trans-Canada highway Superchargers.View attachment 694530View attachment 694529

Edit: The labels in the OP photos aren't legible, but this label appears similar to the Supercharger label (no black area on the label) but different than the Flo chargers (black area on the label).
This doesn't include the extra charger identification badges.

Ah… 600 to 480. That makes sense since supercharger equipment is 480 native and some places in Canada are 600 volts.
 
Normally when you get your own dedicated service you can define what voltage you want (208V or 480V, or I guess 600V here). I would think you could get 480V from the utility, but maybe the lead time for the utility transformer was shorter for 600V or they do some shenanigans with the autotransformers to give themselves a higher than normal 480V service.
 
I just sent an email to BC Hydro for the fun of it asking about the Vernon, Cache Creek and Merritt super chargers and this was their response:

"Thank you for reaching out to BC Hydro. Regrettably, I do not know the answer to your question. The Vernon station opened over this past weekend, I believe, though the Tesla website has not yet been updated to reflect this. You will likely receive a better answer from Tesla directly, as we only supply the power to the charging locations. They will best know the status of their construction projects regarding their charging network. You can also reach out to our Public Fast Charging Support Team that handles inquiries regarding the charging network. Their direct line is 1-866-338-3369. "
 
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There is a flatbed truck parked in Vernon which has an interesting load:

I can't think where else this transformer would be going.
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Or am I way off?

(For sure there is still no transformer on the pad at the Vernon Supercharger site. No electrical meter. No power.)
Honestly I could never imagine a transformer to have a fan that looks like someone just duck taped their floor fan head on it.
 
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