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Supercharger - Wichita, KS

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Jim Stevens, the Applebee's franchisee mentioned in the article and host of Kansas Superchargers in Hays and Wichita also owns or operates numerous other restaurants. 22 other Applebee's and perhaps Pie Five Pizza and Captain D's. Since he's sold on partnering with TM, it's worth watching to see if Superchargers pop up at these places.
 
Nice! I don't think I'll be able to grab a picture tomorrow, but I'll swing by to get an update on Friday. I still can't find the actual building permit when searching the local web site. Strange.

This is actually probably the best location for one inside the Wichita city limits. I grew up less than 2 miles from that intersection, so know the area well. It's half a mile off the Kansas Turnpike (I-35) on the South side of town, right where I-135 splits off to go North to Salina (90 miles away) or you continue North on I-35 to head straight to Topeka (140 miles away). If an East/West route ever comes through town on US-54, it's only about 5 miles out of the way, and in Wichita, that's only 5 minutes of travel time. :) There are numerous options for food right there at that intersection.
 
I stopped by over my lunch break and they are indeed under construction. A little muddy since we got some snow on Tuesday night. A couple things I noticed:

- The site is on the North (back) side of the Applebee's located on the NE side of this intersection. The spots are out of the way and new parking spots, so hopefully, there won't be a huge problem with them getting ICEd.

- Some of the Tesla hardware (distribution gear and non-descript crate) is already on-site.

- The concrete form for setting the Superchargers is in place and they were digging trenches today for running conduit to the charging pedestals.

- I chatted with the guy running the mini-backhoe for a minute. He said they just came from a site in California and these would be pull-in style pedestals instead of the back-in variety. Kinda wonder about doing that since we can get a fair amount of snow here.

- Besides Applebee's and the requisite national fast food chains, there are some local options as well. I stopped at Hog Wild Pit BBQ for lunch, only a block away. Mexican food option right next door as well.

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First, you can really tell how much of a tear Tesla is on installing stations right now. I had to page down quite a way to find this thread... :)

I stopped by today and while the crew wasn't there actively working, I saw a little visible progress from last Friday.

- the conduits running from the enclosure for electrical gear to the individual pedestals were all in place and buried. These are capped with black plastic right now, likely capping the concrete forms (about 1' diameter circles).

- the form for the transformer pad is in place. This was there before, but I thought it was just a pile of dirt covered with a tarp.

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Major progress in Wichita this week, including what appears to be the last of the concrete work. This is good because we've got a cold snap and a little snow coming, which would make pouring new concrete more difficult.

- The concrete for the transformer and Tesla power gear is complete and cured. The concrete for the charging pedestals looked to be poured today.

- The distribution center and Supercharger cabinets are in place. They were working on building the wooden frame around this gear today.

- This location will be a tight fit. You'll drive between the pedestals and building (10 paces, width of three parking stalls, so about 30' wide), swinging to the left to pull between the pedestals. Not terrible, but watch out. I didn't pace off the spacing between the pedestals.

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Another week, another update.

Most of the pedestals look complete. The transformer is on site. Westar was on-site working on the feed coming into the transformer. One of the Westar folks said they'd need to schedule an outage with Applebee's and other local companies before they could actually connect the transformer to the grid.

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Another week, another update.

Most of the pedestals look complete. The transformer is on site. Westar was on-site working on the feed coming into the transformer. One of the Westar folks said they'd need to schedule an outage with Applebee's and other local companies before they could actually connect the transformer to the grid.

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I like this shot showing the connections from the Utility Transformer to the Distribution Cabinet. Looks like there are 3 500 mcm cables for each of 3 phases plus neutral.
 
I like this shot showing the connections from the Utility Transformer to the Distribution Cabinet. Looks like there are 3 500 mcm cables for each of 3 phases plus neutral.

I'm pretty sure one of the folks from Westar mentioned the wire was "500" in the connection between the transformer and distribution center. I talked with one of them for a few seconds while he grabbed a pair of what I would call the "jaws of life" from his truck (huge wire cutters to deal with this thick wire). He was the one that mentioned they would need to schedule an outage to actually power up the transformer. I didn't want to interrupt their work for too long, so didn't chat for long.

I was hoping that shot would turn out. It was a little difficult to see the iPhone screen in the bright sunlight. Was standing about 75' away at the end of the row of pedestals and used the digital zoom on the phone. You can start seeing the effects of using the zoom in that image. Not too bad though. As one of my friends that happened to be a professional photographer for the NFL during his career always says, "The best camera is the one that you have with you". Even a not perfect shot is better than no picture.
 
I'm pretty sure one of the folks from Westar mentioned the wire was "500" in the connection between the transformer and distribution center. I talked with one of them for a few seconds while he grabbed a pair of what I would call the "jaws of life" from his truck (huge wire cutters to deal with this thick wire). He was the one that mentioned they would need to schedule an outage to actually power up the transformer. I didn't want to interrupt their work for too long, so didn't chat for long.

I was hoping that shot would turn out. It was a little difficult to see the iPhone screen in the bright sunlight. Was standing about 75' away at the end of the row of pedestals and used the digital zoom on the phone. You can start seeing the effects of using the zoom in that image. Not too bad though. As one of my friends that happened to be a professional photographer for the NFL during his career always says, "The best camera is the one that you have with you". Even a not perfect shot is better than no picture.

That wire is big stuff! The copper inside of the insulation of 500 mcm wire would be 0707" in diameter if it were solid. Here is a table showing some stats: Circular mil - Wikipedia. The wire that Tesla calls out is rated to 90˚ C., and multiple cables just add capacity with the insulation that they use. From the table, 500 mcm is rated at 430 Amps, so 3, 500 mcm cables can carry 1,290 Amps!

It looks like this is a 6 Stall, 3 Supercharger Cabinet site. The most that the new 135 kW DC out cabinets can draw is 150 kW AC in. At 480V, 3-Phase, that is 180 Amps per phase. Therefore, 3 Supercharger Cabinets will need 540 Amps. Looks like Tesla is putting in plenty of wire to minimize Voltage drop and allow for future expansion.
 
Getting close. The pedestals are powered up (the Tesla logo is lit up at least). They seem to have most of the dirt work done (ground leveled, etc. Looks like they'll have a light pole mounted at the front of where the Teslas part, between positions 3 & 4. The obvious work that remains is getting the area paved and then getting signs installed.

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