[TusharK]

Fortum Oyj - a Finland-based clean energy company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NBCC (India) Limited, a Government of India Enterprise under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to develop electric vehicle charging infrastructure across India in all the upcoming NBCC construction projects. As a first step towards achieving this goal, the two companies have unveiled the first charging station in Delhi.



A 22 KW AC charging station has been installed on a pilot basis in New Moti Bagh Colony. The charging point will be maintained by NBCC and shall be operated using Fortum's cloud-based system. The charger can be used by two vehicles simultaneously and is of IP54 Class which makes it suitable for outdoor operations. It is equipped with a OCPP 1.5 and GPRS communication system. It can be operated using RFID or a mobile app which is connected to Fortum's cloud system. It can also be operated remotely.

According to Mr. Sanjay Aggarwal, Managing Director, Fortum India, currently, there are around 6,000 electric cars in India. This number is expected to rise rapidly as the government has set a goal to achieve 100% e-mobility by 2030. Keeping this in mind, the company plans to install more than 150 charging stations over the next 12-18 months.

Link to Team-BHP News

[sri_tesla]

Good to see govt organizations like NTPC and NBCC taking initiative in setting up electric charging stations.

FYI,
Fortum already setting up solar power plants (Rajasthan - 70 MW and Karnataka-100MW) in India.

Solar/Wind + Electric vehicles is the future.

[Turbanator]

very nice for photo op, can these guys first improve CNG distribution? Despite the fact that CNG started more than a decade back, it can still take anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour in Capital Delhi. I shudder to think plight of Electric car guys, 10 chargers serving 20 cars with an average charging time of over an hour

Not that they should not think or do something about this for future but such short-term solutions are not going to work for anyone. They must promote Hybrids first given the size and complexities of our country.

[sharktale]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

very nice for photo op, can these guys first improve CNG distribution?

I guess adoption rate of the EV charging stations will be much higher than CNG or other combustible fuel, due to minimal investment in infrastructure (creation of pumps, storage facilities) and easier installation, due to it being non-hazardous/non-combustible in nature.

I think the concerned authorities may mull a rental plan for wider adoption similar to the ones which we have for mobile towers in residential buildings.

[SmartCat]

Any idea what "22 KW" AC charging station actually means?

Is KW as mentioned in an electrical appliance or is it like KW rating of an electric car?

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Any idea what "22 KW" AC charging station actually means?

22 kW would be the maximum power output rating for the charging station. As a crude example, if the station can deliver 100% power, it would be able to charge a battery with capacity of 20kWh in an hour. Of course, this depends on the voltage of the charging station and maximum current that can be drawn.

If the charging station supplies 16A at 240V, that would be around 3kW meaning 6-7 cars can be plugged in simultaneously. I guess the station has been designed with possibility of upgrade at a later stage.

[DuHasstMich]

While I'm all for electric and clean energy and all the glitz, but my basic concern is the charging time. Who in this day and world has a leisurely extra hour on their hands to 'wait' at a charging point to charge their EV?

Super Quick charging and high distance range are the biggest hurdles so far, which need to be addressed before we go gung-ho over EVs.

[DCEite]

The future as i see it is that in each housing apartment and gated housing colonies, there will be couple of these charging points installed and maintained exclusively for the residents, apart from the common Electric charging points installed at the existing petrol pumps to cater to a wider consumer base including Cab operators.

And the residents could use these charging points to charge their cars at their own convenient time since its not too far away from their dwelling place anyway.

Infact, not having to set up big infrastructure like a Pump is an enormous advantage these charging kiosks have and the penetration of electricity as fuel should be easier than say CNG.

I am optimistic about future

[sreeharipv]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

very nice for photo op, can these guys first improve CNG distribution? Despite the fact that CNG started more than a decade back, it can still take anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour in Capital Delhi. I shudder to think plight of Electric car guys, 10 chargers serving 20 cars with an average charging time of over an hour

Not that they should not think or do something about this for future but such short-term solutions are not going to work for anyone. They must promote Hybrids first given the size and complexities of our country.

CNG was a band aid solution and isn't going to go far in to the future. It needed expensive machinery and distribution system all for itself which wasn't going to happen unless there is a very big cost and operational advantage.

In contrast, 95% of the time EVs will be charged at home when you are sleeping and wouldn't require the scale of the fossil fuel distribution system we have currently. Also, electricity does't need to be transported or restocked as long as you are anywhere near civilization. When the second generation of EVs are here, you'll find yourself charging outside home maybe only a couple of times in a year outside of long trips. This issue will further be eliminated if big shopping malls and cinemas are 'ordered' to have fast DC charging.

Originally Posted by smartcat

Any idea what "22 KW" AC charging station actually means?

Is KW as mentioned in an electrical appliance or is it like KW rating of an electric car?

kW (kilowatt) is the unit of power. These chargers can put out 22 'units' (kWh) of energy per hour. If an EVs is capable of accepting that is subject to the limitation of its battery and onboard charging equipment.

Originally Posted by DuHasstMich

While I'm all for electric and clean energy and all the glitz, but my basic concern is the charging time. Who in this day and world has a leisurely extra hour on their hands to 'wait' at a charging point to charge their EV?

Super Quick charging and high distance range are the biggest hurdles so far, which need to be addressed before we go gung-ho over EVs.

Most of your charging will be done at home in the night when you are sleeping. So, you'll instead start thinking who has the time and energy to go to the messy and chaotic petrol pumps (which is always on the wrong side of the divider) once a week, once you start using an EV.

Excited that the EV game is finally starting.

Cheers!

[Turbanator]

95% of the time EVs will be charged at home when you are sleeping and wouldn't require the scale of the fossil fuel distribution system we have currently.

I mean the kind of kiosks they are trying to show off, do these have any future? Now coming to the home, are you aware or have seen the home of cabbies presently? If we talk about societies and other smaller housing units, can you imagine chargers for every resident in near foreseen future? I am talking about more than 70-80 % of users who are on the road every day, not the comparatively rich guys who travel 40-50 - Home-Office-Home and hardly create pollution.

And coming onto highways, am not aware of your side but up here in North, most of the food dhabas along NH1 carry a good waiting time on holidays, think hundreds of vehicles lining up and we even don't know how much is range and the charging time of some of the cars Government is buying

Now is this THE future, of course, but when and in which form is a big Question and that's one of the reasons I feel hybrids would have been a perfect start.

[GTO]

A small start, but my goodness, in the recent past, so many charging stations have come up!

NTPC

Tata Power

KSEB

New Motion

Nagpur Airport

[Turbanator]

A small start, but my goodness, in the recent past, so many charging stations have come up!

true and don't be surprised if each offers a different Voltage and are with different plug size/ types

[srishiva]

Shouldn't they care about the car battery voltages first ? Who is setting up the standards ? Will the cars even accept these and what will be the charging time for the kind of things they are looking at

[roy_libran]

Good initiative!

BUT - I am not entirely convinced that Charging infrastructure is a scale-able model at all.
What, in my limited opinion, could rather work is replaceable battery packs (Tesla's idea), and thereby, a proliferation of places where you could go and get a replacement pack in a matter of minutes.

This would of course necessitate-
- Manufacturers to work together to standardise battery packs to an extent (maybe 2-3 variants and no more)
- Manufacturers to design EV's using a common specification w.r.t the placement and design of Battery Packs
- Battery packs to NOT be a part of the car that is sold, rather a unit that is leased
- Creation of charging infrastructures, only at offices, homes or multi-level/mall parkings

[interest]

Apart from charging stations, other technologies being considered to make electric vehicles viable are battery swapping stations. You may simply drive into a battery swapping station and drive out with a fresh pair of charged battery packs. Our existing petrol pump infra itself can be converted into battery swapping station. Another benefit of this method would be to balance the demand and supply of electricity thereby maintaining grid stability. A third advantage would be to allow usage of solar panel based charging at these battery swapping stations. Imagine such stations in remote areas functioning perfectly fine without regular electricity connection solely on the basis of solar panels.
For this to succeed, what is required is standardization of batteries across different automobile companies. It is not impossible, but, it would make sense for standardization to happen after some more research has gone into identifying the most suitable storage technology for batteries as storage technology is still evolving.