a little run down about costs for a DC charger install and operating it. 1. they are heavy ... fork lift into place, you need structural engineering for the concrete base that it will sit on. we needed to use ground penetrating radar to determine the soil type under the charger to determine the size and depth of the concrete. 2. if your EV charger has a different voltage than the service, you need a transformer to fix that. and the transformer needs a concrete pad as well. 3. does the existing service have the ability to feed the load? Adding 1 charger is like 2.5 houses. if not you will need to upgrade or get a new service feed from the utility. This may require another transformer from the distribution line (12.5Kv to 600V). 4. permits, permits, permits. You need all sorts of permits now because of electrical and structural work. 5. construction, concrete pads, conduits, pull pits, drainage, remediation of parking lot (asphalt) costs are all over the map, which is why I say you need to budget huge for the project. 6. getting the electrical to the charger, you need lots of copper, these cables are expensive to run from the transformer to the charging station. 7. The stations need 120V as well as 480V. Again you may need another small transformer near the charging station, and more electrical design by people smarter than me. 8. The cost of the equipment is all over the map right now. anywhere from $18k - $40k. They are not all made equal. And we are just learning now about how well each unit holds up to the weather and abuse and mean time between failure. 9. Canada is not the USA, to install these chargers the electrical inspector will need to see a CSA or cUL sticker on the charger. I found it difficult getting chargers that had CSA or cUL certification when I ordered mine last year. Without the certification you would need to get someone like intertek to come out and inspect the unit, and they may want to have the charger delivered to their office to do additional testing... 10. Maintenance agreements, most suppliers of the DC chargers offer maintenance agreements to keep it running. Normally it is 10%-15% of the original cost of the equipment annually. for me that is about $6k / year for insurance to keep them operational. 11. operational costs, if you are using a networked charger the backend provider wants to make money. you can expect that it would cost about $1 per transaction to cover the cost of the billing system It is expensive, and the site specific costs are more than the cost of the equipment, so I dont expect it to become cheaper in the coming years. My personal feeling is that we need to approach people who own commercial real estate and pitch them as why it is in their best interest to buy and install a DC charger. I am thinking large malls etc that have good access and lots of parking. I think of it like opening any new business, once there is that business on the block it makes it less attractive for someone else to open a similar store across the street. but it does attract other stores because the people are there. So it really is a real-estate play by installing it now.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 13:29:02 +0000
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