Supercharger - Culver City, CA (16 V2 stalls)

[NoCO]

It is twelve stations. The area before the excavation was small and probably wouldnt have fit a distribution vault and transformer pad/vault. It will be interesting to see this one as it completes. As far as a supercharger site...it's real, the Tesla equipment is on site now.

 

[gaswalla]

I think he was implicitly asking if this is a battery swapping station. Sounds like it's not

 

[apacheguy]

I think he was implicitly asking if this is a battery swapping station. Sounds like it's not

Indeed. Surface trenching is quite normal for SpC installations, but 12 feet underground?

 

[NoCO]

Indeed. Surface trenching is quite normal for SpC installations, but 12 feet underground?

Apparently for this site. I've never seen the requirement or need to run a subterranean distribution vault to a super charger. If you look at the first pictures I posted, you can see the transformer pad laying on site, it is still laying on site, a much larger pad that incorporated a 3' deep vault was used instead and it is connected to the large vault. The larger vault is about 8x20' and about 10' deep, that was a lot of dirt.

The good news is that all the heavy work for getting the main power to the site is done, all that remains will be running the cable and dropping the transformer. Here are pictures from today, it includes the new vaults completed and the conduit for the five super chargers being run. The superchargers and distribution box pad looks like it will be next to were the yellow CAT based on the trenching.

Perhaps all this electrical work points to more expansion later?

 

[SW2Fiddler]

Perhaps all this electrical work points to more expansion later?

Does the Utility Xformer seem oversized for the number of SCs? That surely would support the theory!

 

[rrosenbl]

Just when the underground vault appeared finished they started digging another big hole:

The site is not much changed:

The wait continues...

 

[NoCO]

Thanks...home sick this week...I got the impression they were doing OT to enjoy the holidays...looks like they excavated the conduit to the supercharger and distribution site and have the conduit hooked up at the transformer for the run to the distribution point. Looking good.

I kinda think it will be a great present from Santa to have this live before Christmas.

 

[rrosenbl]

Progress!!

There's been a lot of progress at the supercharger site,

Bollards are up for Five of the charging stalls:

Block enclosures for the utility meter/equipment cabinet is dearly complete:

I presume the utility (SCE) will use this space to install their equipment which feeds power to the supercharger cabinets:

and enclosures for the supercharger cabinets:

Again, I can't get the photos to orient on my Mac, when I look at the post with the iPhone the photos are oriented correctly. I've tried flipping the photos then uploading them, does not work, and have searched through every editing button on the website without success. This appears to be a new issue as of the past few weeks, I did not have this problem with my earlier photo posts?!? I'd appreciate any guidance.

 

[Cottonwood]

I presume the utility (SCE) will use this space to install their equipment which feeds power to the supercharger cabinets:
View attachment 65435


Again, I can't get the photos to orient on my Mac, when I look at the post with the iPhone the photos are oriented correctly. I've tried flipping the photos then uploading them, does not work, and have searched through every editing button on the website without success. This appears to be a new issue as of the past few weeks, I did not have this problem with my earlier photo posts?!? I'd appreciate any guidance.

Those triplets of conduits are for the Supercharger Cabinets. Each single conduit for the AC power in and the pair of conduits for DC out, one for each Supercharger Pedestal.

As for orientation, if you load the pics onto your Mac, edit them in any way, then save them again before uploading them to TMC, the orientation should be correct. Try uploading to the Mac at "large" resolution, then resizing to 1200 max linear resolution, then you take care of the orientation issue and also have a nice size for TMC.

 

[Tyl]

At this site we have two cinderblock enclosures. One for the superchargers and the distribution cabinets. The other for ? Utility transformer (s) and I'm guessing here... Bidirectional battery packs?? I can't figure out why we have two very large enclosures:|. Anyone?.....

 

[Cottonwood]

At this site we have two cinderblock enclosures. One for the superchargers and the distribution cabinets. The other for ? Utility transformer (s) and I'm guessing here... Bidirectional battery packs?? I can't figure out why we two very large enclosures:|. Anyone?.....

Take some pictures of the cabinets inside. It is a very good chance that the second enclosure is for some energy storage to reduce the large demand charge in California. It appears that Hawthorne and Barstow have energy storage; Culver City could be next.

Also, typically the utility transformers are not put inside an enclosure.

 

[Tyl]

I'm pretty sure Tejon Ranch CA has battery storage as well.

 

[NoCO]

Stopped by today and this evening. In the afternoon just work cleaning up the main power runs. This evening SCE showed up and ran cable and installed what appears to be the transformer which is on the big vault they put in. I guess that means that the square pad is going to have a batter storage device on it and that feed then goes to the distribution pad.

 

[apacheguy]

Doesn't battery backup require a solar canopy? Pretty sure a utility won't let you charge your batteries off peak just so you can use them during on peak hours. That's cheating the system.

 

[markb1]

Doesn't battery backup require a solar canopy? Pretty sure a utility won't let you charge your batteries off peak just so you can use them during on peak hours. That's cheating the system.

I don't see how that would be cheating. I do that with my car every single day. Charge at night, drive during the day.

 

[Dave EV]

I don't see how that would be cheating. I do that with my car every single day. Charge at night, drive during the day.

Yep, no problem with doing that. They just can't push power back onto the grid without an agreement with the utility (which they very well might have as grid storage is very valuable).

 

[Cottonwood]

Yep, no problem with doing that. They just can't push power back onto the grid without an agreement with the utility (which they very well might have as grid storage is very valuable).

Tesla does not have to push any power back into the grid for the batteries to be useful. They can gain the most benefit from peak shaving and reducing the demand charge.

Commercial accounts get charged for both total energy usage (kWh) and the peak usage in any 15 minute interval (kW).

These are 135 kW Supercharger Cabinets, but that is DC out power. The AC in power is about 150 kW for a 90% conversion efficiency. 6 Supercharger cabinets all running flat out could draw up to 900 kW.

For a less than 1% chance of queueing, there is about a 4% chance of using more than 750 kW. If Tesla puts in enough energy storage to make the peak draw from the grid 750 kW instead of 900 kW, then the demand charge is reduced by 150 kW. At $25/kW, that would be $3,750 per month saved. Those are just plausible numbers. I don't know what the traffic will be at Culver City, how Tesla is clipping the peaks, nor do I know the exact demand rate.

 

[4SUPER9]

How easy is the access to this site from the 405? I have driven by many many times over the years, but have never actually been to this mall.

 

[NoCO]

Pretty easy. 405 south, take the 90 to slauson, turn right, turn right on Bristol Pkwy, then one last right on Hannum, then make a left on Fox Hills Dr (you can go left and left at Slauson but the lights and traffic will take some time) into the mall, you will see the Westfield Culver City sign, the site is below the sign..pick an entrance.

From the 405 north, get off at Sepulveda, then make a right on Greeen Valley Circle and a left on Fox Hills Dr, then drive to the far end of the mall, after you pass the parking structure, take the first left and it's on your right.

Edit...
There is no 405 S entrance on the 90 so when you are leaving, you will need to either go to Howard Huges or drive to the Jefferson one (HH is better). Slauson and Spevulveda have a red light camera and it is twitchy...also the Culver City Police around lunch time are in full revenue mode.

 

[NoCO]

OK...I guess I was wrong. Last night when I left SCE was placing what appeared to be a transformer (though I had never seen one of that type before) and the other pad was empty so I assumed it must be for a battery.

Well today I stopped by and saw a transformer (which is what we normally see). So I guess the other device was a intermediate transformer, so I guess it was a really high voltage feed.

I'm going to check tomorrow if they are working...but if the weather doesn't interfere, I'm thinking they could open 4 of the stalls by Friday and the rest later...we'll see.