The longest EV charging network in West Australia

[Techno-phile]

The WA State government announced today that it will build a DC charging network from Kununurra to Esperance for $21m. This appears to conform to the report issued by UWA a couple of years ago to build such a network on all Main roads in WA for $23.6m. Except the Great Northern Highway, the Nullarbor east of Norseman and the direct route to Esperance are excluded, which explains the cost reduction.
Fortunately AEVA already have the Perth to Esperance route covered (at least Lake Grace and Ravensthorpe), and Jon Edwards has put up his hand to complete the Nullarbor (at least on the WA side).
Media Statements - New strategy to power electric vehicles in Western Australia
Thanks to Thomas Bräunl of UWA for his consistent support of EV charging infrastructure and to all those who have campaigned for his report to be accepted by the State. Our idea in the State's Ithink campaign received easily the most votes.

 

[moa999]

Another (paywalled) article today

WA’s electric vehicle future taking shape

Australia’s longest ‘electric highway’ will be fully operational in WA by 2024, with the location of 45 electric vehicle charging stations unveiled.

thewest.com.au

And this map.
Still leaves a 700+km gap between Norseman and the SA border.

 

[meloccom]

Given the success of places like Flinders Island hybrid power station, population circa 800, you would think a similar system at the major towns along the Nullarbor would make sense and the battery power would allow for DC fast chargers at the same time.

 

[Vostok]

Given the success of places like Flinders Island hybrid power station, population circa 800, you would think a similar system at the major towns along the Nullarbor would make sense and the battery power would allow for DC fast chargers at the same time.

The Flinders Island power station was covered in an ABC documentary last week on the grid of the future:

Catalyst

Exploring the forefront of science and technology, Catalyst brings you compelling stories looking at the latest in science from health and medical breakthroughs to astronomy, environment, and agriculture.

www.abc.net.au

It was pretty interesting and I assume will be on iView for a while.

 

[Techno-phile]

We are trying to get the State to add Balladonia and Cocklebiddy to the "longest highway", by offering two BioFil 50kW chargers for $100,000 each.
They also excluded Great Northern Highway and Perth to Esperance direct, but is really the missing Nullarbor chargers which have been most disappointing.

 

[Pixor]

It was pretty interesting and I assume will be on iView for a while.

Good find!

 

[Chuq]

We are trying to get the State to add Balladonia and Cocklebiddy to the "longest highway", by offering two BioFil 50kW chargers for $100,000 each.

Great move! How receptive do you think they'll be?

It may be challenge purely due to government legalese and process.

e.g.
- the current project probably has a documented scope, terms of reference, contract etc. these units would be outside that scope.
- governments wants a single operator, consistent end-user cost for the entire network
- single 50 kW units would not align with the rest of the network (2x stalls per site)
- user interface for the BioFil units is different - startup of the generator, etc.
- max capacity 6 vehicles/week average (obviously higher capacity for "storage" so capable of handling peak demand)

Don't get me wrong, the BioFil pods are absolutely fantastic setups and would be perfect, but I don't know if the government would make it easy for them to be included.

Is there an alternate funding source (grants, etc) available, which could fund these?

Maybe ARENA? Their Future Fuels Round 2 will be targetted at regional areas. But if it's anything like Round 1, they'll want to split each state between a small number of recipients. Not a lot of scope for just doing a couple of sites. And they may insist on 2x stalls per site, like Round 1. Maybe it won't be anything like Round 1 though - could be worth having a conversation with someone at ARENA just in case. In a recent video they solicited feedback at the email address futurefuels@[their domain] to discuss.

 

[moa999]

Per this thread

Supercharger - Lancelin, WA

Shire of Gingin has unanimously voted to support a lease to Tesla for a supercharger station at Lancelin (125 km north of Perth)...

teslamotorsclub.com

Looks like Synergy (WA Govt owned electrical generator and retailer) have applied for sites next to each other in Lancelin (pop 726) the first dot 125km north of Perth.

 

[Chuq]

Thanks for posting here, I neglected to do so! I think this is the first specific site identified. No info as to capacity or stalls yet. They've asked for 5 parking spaces, although this is not necessarily 1:1 with charging bays, some might be taken with charging equipment.

 

[Chuq]

Although thanks to the prompt, I started looking! Other discussions happening..

Southern Cross - https://www.yilgarn.wa.gov.au/documents/10694/agenda-october-2021

 

[Chuq]

The tender documents have gone out for this:

https://www.tenders.wa.gov.au/watenders/tender/display/tender-details.do?CSRFNONCE=F8561CA98520373E666E5D475A7CAFCA&id=51464&action=display-tender-details&returnUrl=%2Ftender%2Fsearch%2Ftender-search.do%3FCSRFNONCE%3D2DFEFA78C77A9DCC62497F99EF4CE01F%26amp%3Bnoreset%3Dyes

It appears to include 40 AC stations and 52 DC stations (including 50, 75 and 150 kW stations)

Fairly disappointing as I would have thought 2x DC would be the minimum for a remote route like this.

 

[RareEarth]

Article on the fast chargers powered by cooking oil for the Nullarbor:

'We have to filter out the crispy bits': How leftover chip oil will keep EV owners moving across the Nullarbor

EV owners are crowdfunding a fast charger in the middle of the Nullarbor — and it will run on leftover chip oil from the local roadhouse.

www.abc.net.au

Love the bit about having to "filter out the crispy bits".

 

[AussieOwner]

I just read this. Annoyed me they didn’t mention TOCA at all.

 

[Chuq]

I just read this. Annoyed me they didn’t mention TOCA at all.

Yeah, I didn't notice that when I first read it... but no mention of TOCA, TOCWA, AEVA or even a link to the crowdfunder.

No mention of the previous 3-phase network that has been used the last few years, which was funded by the same organisations.

It's a pretty thorough article, but that side of it was completely omitted...

 

[Chuq]

Geraldton council has agreed to the location preferred by the state government:

News Story - State Government electric highway stop off in Geraldton » City of Greater Geraldton

www.cgg.wa.gov.au

 

[moa999]

Quite a big distance from the transformer compared to most installs.

 

[cafz]

Superchargers at least often get their own new transformer. Eg at Gundagai.

 

[Chuq]

This is a great image created by Harald (@Murbs) from TOCWA and was shown on a TOCWA live chat a few weeks ago.

The table in the centre is sourced from the governments tender documents. It shows which types of chargers are to be delivered to which regions. It's safe to assume that, e.g. units delivered to Kununurra are to be used at sites in that region.

The map (note - WITHOUT the numbers) is sourced from the WA government's website and shows the locations of the sites in the network.

What Harald has done is taking the known info of number of charging units, and the known info of site locations, and speculated the allocation of charging units of various speed to the sites. (these are the numbers spread around the map)

Note:

• It includes the distribution of 50, 75 and 150 kW units.
• The assumption is the the blue area (Synergy grid area) 100% aligns to the Perth line in the table, and that every one of these locations will have a 150 kW unit. (there are 21 locations marked and 24x 150 kW units, 3x 75 kW units in the table, so lets just assume all sites will get at least one 150 kW and some of the busier sites will get additional units)
• The 7 kW and 22 kW units are ignored for now, I guess these will be at the same sites but secondary/backup units.

I think Harald has looked at the locations which are likely to have poor electrical capacity such as the roadhouses and put the 50 kW sites there, with the 150 kW sites being more likely at the larger towns. Any further reasoning behind the allocation I'm going to defer to his superior local knowledge!

Again, this is speculative, and I think the best case scenario based on the info available. I guess there is a fear that it could be worse (e.g. the roadhouses only having 22 kW charging)

Many people think that a single 50 kW is too slow for a network like this but lots of these sites are SAPS (off grid) and simply don't have the capacity for anything higher. Most long range (400+ km) EVs will be able to do a long drive (say Perth to Kununurra) with 80-90% of the charging being at 150 kW sites, and only a couple of 50 kW charges being necessary. Easily mitigated by aligning longer stops (lunch or overnight) at the slower locations.

 

[donthertzme]

When are the first sites expected to be completed?

 

[moa999]

Interesting article on Kalbarri, which is on the edge of the grid network shown in the map above (and far more populated and visited than the Nullarbor).
$15m cost

Finding new energy solutions for the town of Kalbarri

One of Australia's largest renewable energy microgrids will soon power the Kalbarri community and provide greater power reliability to the WA tourist town.

www.westernpower.com.au