The SCE CHADEMO (teaser)

[hill]

Ok LA, San Berdu, OC, & San Dego county people - did I get your attention?
Do you recognize the Leaf's display below, showing the QC Icon off Irwindale AV and the 210 Freeway? No? That's where I charged today - Southern California Edison. They have LOTS of chargers.

Seems SCE (notorious for killing quick charging via outrageous - 6 figure 'demand fees') has been holding out on us. They've got one of their own AV units - a big ol' 50kW outdoor model. It's the 1st time I used an AV QC. So, it's GOOD to be a utility company - cuz you don't have to charge demand fees to your self.

Long story short - they are NOT gonna let you use it, unless you got down there today before 4PM. They're testing it, and needed volunteers so that SCE could verify what kind of pull they can expect from a QC unit (sometimes) pulling 100+ amps. Hmmmmm - now, why do you think SCE wants/needs that kind of data logging. Call me the eternal optimist.

Sorry for not being able to give earlier notice - but I literally didn't find out until I headed up there - starting from orange county around 12pm ... texting a post while driving didn't seem to be the wise thing to do - and once I was hooked up, the researcher guy (Richard) had info he wanted from me pertaining to our Leaf.

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[baronvonshush]

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 3:59 pm
...
Long story short - they are NOT gonna let you use it, unless you got down there today before 4PM.

So you basically gave us 1 minute of notice? :lol:

Too bad none of us found out about this earlier. I work very close to there and would have been have been happy to stop by yesterday. But very interesting nonetheless, and fortunate that you happened to stumble upon it!

Did they indicate whether this QC would stay there permanently and be available to the public at some point?

 

[hill]

The (possible) permanent status was hush hush, and wouldn't say where it was to end up. It was set up with a permanent 3 phase 'socket' type plug though, and the AV unit itself was not permanently mounted. Rather, it was set up on a sort of caster-mounted low-boy pallet. The fellow setting up & reading the data logger said he's the only one that reads / sets up the data logger, and he only works out of the Irwindale SCE facility now & then. I'll try & fling MNL folks more of a "head-up" - if it happens again, and if they give more warning, should another day of testing arrise.

Since SCE has NO QC EV's (though they DO have Volts, Ford Transits, Gen I Rav4-EV's and PiP's) Interesting to me was that not only did SCE log my VIN - they logged the % of charge that I arrived with - as well as my odometer reading (19,185) and the % difference between what the GOM said I was charged up to, compared to what the AV QC said I was charged up to. The GOM said I was at 80+ %, while the AV unit said I was at 91% (1 bar difference) when the QC was disconnected. The Eaton Mitsu QC I've used before always matched exactly what the GOM readout shows, fwiw.

 

[tbleakne]

I too am very disappointed that I didn't hear of this in time. I had heard from a SCE engineer some months ago that they were planning to test a L3 QC first at their Pomona research facility, which is closed to the public. At that time I suggested Irwindale would be a great place for a permanent installation accessible to the public, since it is so very close to both I-210 and I-605. He said they were considering that.

Over several email exchanges from various SCE persons I tried to fight their excuses for no QC. I believe I succeeded in correcting their impression that "very few" of the EVs on the road (mainly LEAFs) had QC ports.

The 8 Chargepoint L2 with solar canopy at Irwindale seems mostly for show, far more than are ever needed at once. Although they are available 24/7, their rest-room and cool lobby is only open during weekday business hours. These limitations would be much less important for the shorter times needed for a L3 charge.