https://www.treehugger.com/cars/how-set-public-electric-vehicle-charging-station-fast-charging-edition.html
How to set up a public electric vehicle charging station, the fast charging
edition
November 14, 2017 Sami Grover
[images
https://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2017/11/EV_Showcase3.jpeg.662x0_q70_crop-scale.jpg
The Alliance Center/Rebecca Ann Photography
https://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2017/11/EV_Showcase2.jpg.650x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg
EV showcase launch ribbon cutting photo
https://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2017/11/EV_Showcase5.jpeg.650x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg
EV charging station launch event photo
]
As electric vehicle use spreads, demand for more—and faster—charging
stations will grow too.
So far, when businesses have looked at installing electric vehicle charging,
most have opted to go for slower, Level 2 charging which provides most
vehicles with about 20 miles of charge in an hour. (A little more for Tesla
destination chargers.) As the number of electric vehicles grows, however,
and as their range/battery capacity increases, there's a high likelihood
that drivers will have more demand for faster charging options too. It's one
thing, after all, to sit around for an hour or so to "fill up" your 80-mile
Nissan Leaf. It's quite another if you need to replenish 200+/300+ miles of
range in your Tesla or Chevy Bolt.
So what does it take to install a DC fast charging station that's open to
the public? We got on the phone with Chris Bowyer, Director of Building
Operations at The Alliance Center in the Lower Downtown (LoDo) neighborhood
of Denver, to find out. The Alliance Center—which offers LEED Platinum
certified office space to 50 mission driven organizations—recently took the
plunge and installed a ChargePoint Express 200 50kw charging station in its
parking lot, which it made available to the general public.
As Chris explained, however, the original plan was actually to go with a
slower, Level 2 station:
"As an innovator in the sustainability industry, we wanted to capitalize
on the growth in electric vehicle use and provide a resource for tenants,
visitors and the community around us. Given that most users were likely to
be tenants who spend their whole day here, our original plan was to install
some slower, Level 2 charging stations that tenants' employees could use to
fill up while they work. When we applied for a Charge Ahead Colorado grant
managed by the Regional Air Quality Council and funded by the Colorado
Department of Transportation to help pay for it, however, we didn't get the
Level 2 funding. But they strongly encouraged us to go for Level 3."
When the unit was installed, it was the first Level 3 charging station in
LoDo. That has since changed, as REI also installed two DC fast chargers, as
well as two Level 2 charging stations, about 1.5 miles away. Nevertheless,
Chris sees the addition of the charging station as an important piece of
infrastructure—not just for tenants and guests of the building, but for the
surrounding community too:
"As soon as we started exploring the possibility of adding charging
stations, we were adamant that it should be for everyone. I don’t care if
you live in Grand Junction and just want to plug in to get what you need to
get home. Come by, charge up, and pop in and say hello while you are at it."
The total cost of purchase and installation came in at around $50,000, says
Chris, with $16,000 of that coming from the Department of Transportation
grant. But The Alliance Center saw this as an important investment in
staying ahead of the sustainability game. Crucially, because The Alliance
Center wanted the unit to be highly visible to people who might not
otherwise know about or visit their offices, the organization decided to go
with a networked charging station from ChargePoint. That means it appears on
the ChargePoint app, can be monitored and diagnosed for any downtime or
faults, and also communicates whether it is currently available or in use by
another driver.
This networked option also allows The Alliance Center to charge for use—a
feature that just about covers the cost of electricity, and also
incentivizes drivers to move on once they have charged as much as they need
to. The cost, currently, is $8.50 for a two hour session, with a $1 discount
for tenants of the building. The Alliance Center also pays ChargePoint both
an annual operational fee and a small percentage of each charging session,
but Chris says that the fees are relatively nominal compared to overall
project cost.
In terms of where to locate the unit on the property, Chris explains that it
really wasn't as much of a headache as you might think:
"We had to make sure we were near to one of our main electrical rooms,
as this reduced the need for trenching and wiring—which can add significant
cost and hassle—and we also had to coordinate with our utility to ensure
that demand for charging didn't overpower the transformers for that
