Tokyo Electric Power Licenses Aker Wade to Build Level III Fast Chargers
15 January 2010
| TEPCO analysis found that quick charger availability has a significant effect on driving behavior. Source: TEPCO. Click to enlarge. |
Aker Wade Power Technologies has entered into a licensing agreement with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to manufacture and market Level III DC fast chargers for electric vehicles. The chargers will incorporate TEPCO’s patented technology and be capable of charging vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Plug-In Stella by Subaru within less than half an hour. Aker Wade is the first US manufacturer that has concluded a license agreement to use this technology.
Aker Wade is also joining CHΛdeMO (stands for Charge and Move), an association formed by Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru and TEPCO that will start this March to promote a common use quick charger.
| TEPCO Level III Specs |
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The association is being founded to give drivers a sense of assurance that chargers of member manufacturers are fully compatible with electric vehicles of member OEMs.
Under TEPCO’s scheme, only the communication protocol and the connector are standard; the main circuits and component designs are dependent upon the EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment) makers.
TEPCO has been a pioneer in the implementation of electric vehicles. Since 2006 it has tested more than 300 battery powered cars in the greater Tokyo area. From this experience it became convinced that fast chargers were the answer to overcome consumers concerns about the electric vehicle’s limited range.
When we deployed fast chargers the vehicles were driven over 50 percent more. Drivers felt comfortable and used the full range of the vehicle.
—Takafumi Anegawa, group manager of TEPCO’s Mobility Technology Group at their Yokohama R&D Center
| Aker Wade is also joining CHΛdeMO to promote a common use quick charger in Japan. Click to enlarge. |
Aker Wade Power Technologies designs and manufactures advanced fast charging systems for electric vehicles and industrial forklifts. Aker Wade is collaborating with battery companies, infrastructure suppliers and EV manufacturers to deliver advanced Level III fast charging solutions for the future generation of battery electric vehicles.
Earlier this week, Aker Wade and Coulomb Technologies agreed to deploy Level III networked fast charging stations for electric vehicles worldwide. The Level III fast charging stations will be co-developed, distributed, marketed and supported by both companies, and designed in accordance with the TEPCO Level III specifications. (Earlier post.)
Resources
Desirable characteristics of public quick charger (Takafumi Anegawa, TEPCO)
Level III chargers can charge an EV or a PHEV with about 8.3 kWh in ten minutes (assuming 50kW charging). The 8.3 kWh is enough for 30 miles for most EVs and PHEVs or enough to get you home in some 90% of the cases when you need to go to a charging station outside of your home.
A level 3 charger cost about 100.000 USD for one that can charge two vehicles at a time.(1) If each gas station in the US is required to get just one level III charger it will cost 14 billion USD to cover the entire country (assuming 140,000 gas stations in the US). This is peanuts when you consider the benefits for national security, public health and the global environment.
For comparison one regular gas station cost 2 million USD and a hydrogen station cost much more. (2) Moreover, level III chargers are not rocket science. Once the standard is set any company that does high power electric stuff can fabricate them.
Infrastructure is not going to be a big issue for EVs and PHEVs. It can be build in any country for small money in 2 to 4 years after legislation demand gas stations to carry at least one level III charger.
1) Prices of level III chargers.
A) Avinc says 110,000 to 160,000 USD per fast charge station, see page 4.
http://www.avinc.com/downloads/EVs_The_Next_Big_Thing_V2.pdf
B) Coulomb Technologies and Aker Wade Power Technologies say 60,000 USD per station.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2010/01/fast-charging-systems-on-the-way-30-minutes-or-less-to-recharge-an-ev.html
2) http://www.avinc.com/downloads/EVs_The_Next_Big_Thing_V2.pdf see page 4.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 15 January 2010 at 03:40 AM
A dramatic change in EV usage with quick charging available.
Posted by: kelly | 15 January 2010 at 06:58 AM
Level III (50 KWh) chargers are a good first generation unit. Level IV will certainly have 100+ Kwh capacity for future 100+Kwh BEV batteries..
Posted by: HarveyD | 15 January 2010 at 07:02 AM
Every charging station will need to be built right next to an electric substation if a small number of EVs need to be charged simultaneously.
Posted by: Mannstein | 15 January 2010 at 12:20 PM
That was an observation I made years ago when everyone was saying quick charging was the way. I went through peak power needs and how a city would have to more than double its electrical generation and distribution capacity just to handle all the charging during the day. Then there were discussions of battery banks and supper capacitors trying to find a way to make it work.
Posted by: SJC | 15 January 2010 at 12:35 PM
This begs the question about the load to be needed by BEV's as it pertains to the fragile power grid in the US. We are used to thinking BEV's will charge all night when there is little load. Hate to think of the GHG implications of flash charging on the go with all the power coming from peak sources.
@Henrik you may be a little ahead of yourself to suggest requiring "each gas station in the US..to get just one level III charger"; considering the adoption of BEV's will be spread out over many years. BEV's are unlikely to ever exceed 50% of the fleet.
Posted by: nordic | 15 January 2010 at 01:31 PM
We better get use to PHEV-BEV charging stations because there will be many millions around before the end of this decade.
A quick charge public station with 8 x 50 Kwh charger will use a mximum of about 300 Kwh at any one time and is not a major challenge.
Our new larger all-electric residences are equipped with 240 VAC @ 400 Amps = 96 KW or equivalent to two large (48 Kwh) charger. A charge station with 6 large chargers would only have the potential load of 4 to 5 residences. That's not even a challenge.
An average all electric condonium building is equipped with 5000 KW (equivalent to 100 larger chargers mentionned in this article) and it is not creating the least problem to the electrical distribution system.
A public station with 6 to 12 chargers is a very minor challenge. Lets not exagerate unless you want to perpetuate the use of ICE equipped vehicles.
Posted by: HarveyD | 16 January 2010 at 07:39 AM
In my town, there are maybe 20,000 cars. Now let's say that 10,000 of those become EVs with quick charge capability and have 24 kWh packs. Now 1000s of them want to quick charge every day with 50 kW chargers. They will need to stay around 20-30 minutes for that "quick charge", but I don't think many will want to hang around the Quickie Mart that long.
Now you have a power grid that was not designed to handle 100s of fueling stations all drawing an extra 100 kW, or the power of about 50 homes. Now you need new lines, transformers, power transfer stations as if the population of your city just doubled and you built twice as many homes in a very short period of time.
I am not saying that it can not be done, but there are costs beyond the fueling station. Now you need the power company and the city council to pay for all of this upgrade and someone has to pay for it all. It will ultimately be the driver and tax payer. There is NO free lunch. Oh by the way, the power generation facilities will now have to be doubled as if it were a summer day and ACs were running full blast all year around, but now you have to provide power when it really IS summer and the ACs really are blasting away.
Posted by: SJC | 16 January 2010 at 02:06 PM
SJC:
There is a very easy solution. Replace the 20,000 low efficiency A/C in your town with 20,000 ultra high efficiency dual cycle heat pumps and you will liberate enough e-energy for 10,000++ PHEVs/BEVs.
The energy saved over 7 to 8 years (+ government grants) will pay for your 20,000 super heat pumps. You could also change your windows and doors for R-11+ units, improve your ceiling insulation etc and reduce the energy usage (PHEV included). We have done that and reduced our daily e-energy usage from 65 Kwh/day to 25 Kwh/day for an all electric residence. The 40 Kwh/day saved could satify 3 to 4 PHEV/BEV as soon as they become available at an affordable price.
Posted by: HarveyD | 17 January 2010 at 09:40 AM
So now 20,000 homes are suppose to put in new $20,000 heat pumps at a total cost of $400 million...I don't think that will go over very well.
Posted by: SJC | 17 January 2010 at 10:44 AM
The cheapest and least expensive way of providing this power is to have a natural gas powered engine-generator available at each charger. It takes too much peak power and too low an average power to be connected to the grid. An engine with 100kw is not hard to find they are mentioned in these pages all the time. The use of local generation is more efficient if natural gas is available, and it fits in with CNG vehicles.
Sodium sulphur batteries can also be used to provide power peaks. Vanadium Redox batteries are also possible for large amounts of energy. Sodium-nickel batteries might be cheap enough if GE mass produces them. Lead Acid batteries from Firefly and other makers may still be the cheapest battery energy storage system.
The truth is that no electric car should be allowed on the road without a small, even tiny, range extending generator. Such machines can be built for very high speeds and compact power. Efficiency is not important, but it will be higher than standard cars anyway.
This the the cheap and true way of eliminating range anxiety. Such machines can even run on propane or autogas since they will be seldom used in most cars. Plug-in-hybrid electric cars for daily commuters will be engineered to be efficient for that type of operation. Hybrid operation, of any kind, can improve or even double efficiency. Single piston generators can even be used for highest efficiency. Such machines can be operated in either highest power or highest efficiency mode or not at all. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 17 January 2010 at 06:26 PM
Talking about efficiency, hydro water turbines have already reached 98+% and the feedstock (water) is absolutely free.
That is why we have developed 45,000 mega-watt and are developing another 45,000 mega hydro-power in our area over the next 20 to 40 years. Hydro power can be efficently and quickly ajusted to match variable loads or demands and is a perfect companion for adjacent variable Wind power farms. Wind potential over the same area has been evaluated to be around 95,000 mega-watt.
To make better (full) use of Wind power, it is preferable to make it the primary power source and use quickly adjustable Hydro as secondary power source for peak demands and during lower wind power availability.
Posted by: HarveyD | 19 January 2010 at 09:33 AM