On Monday December 7, 2020 BC Hydro hosted a virtual public forum where they outlined their plans going forward into 2021 and beyond in relation to electric vehicles and public charging in the province.
A copy of the slide deck is available here: https://www.bchydro.com/content/dam/BCHydro/customer-portal/documents/power-smart/electric-vehicles/Fast-Charge-Rate-Public-Engagement-202012.pdf
Shortly after this meeting I created a review video on my youtube channel summarizing the contents of that presentation:
One of the problems I mentioned in that meeting was the very slow progress for EV charger installation in the Northern part of the province. It seems that my voice was heard because I received the following emails the next day:
Hi Mark,
I understand from my team that you’ve made some inquires regarding the construction progress of some of our fast charging stations. Also you may have asked some questions during our public workshop on Monday.
Of particular note, Prince George was a very unique site as it required directional drilling, thus the much longer design and construction timeline than usual.
Once the chargers are installed at the site, there are still a number of steps that go on behind the scenes that may not be apparent to an observer. Here is the usual sequence of events:
- Upon completion of construction and electrical work, Electrician submits request for inspection to Technical Safety BC. Response time ranges from a couple of days to a couple weeks depending on the area of the province and inspector workload or travel restrictions.
- Electrical Inspector from Technical Safety BC attends the site to inspect the equipment and installation. If TSBC has some questions or additional requirements, then it could take up to several weeks if the delivery of special parts is needed.
- Electrician submits approved inspection report to BC Hydro to request energization of the site.
- BC Hydro schedules a line crew to energize the site. This schedule is prioritized according to other work in the queue and may be affected by storm response work or customer outage restrictions. Typical scheduling for energization is 2-4 weeks.
- BC Hydro line crew energizes the site.
- Electrician / charger technician turns on the chargers.
- Our EV Operations group completes final commissioning and testing of the chargers, does final public safety check and tests charging with BC Hydro owned EV’s as well as ensuring our support team is reading to support the new site 24/7. Steps 5-7 takes place within a few days or more as each role attempts to be efficient by bunding the task with other activities en-route.
- PlugShare and ChargeHub are updated with description, activation details, updated photos and real-time status is activated.
- Site opened to the public.
It usually takes several weeks to complete all of these steps, but could be longer if there are delays scheduling a line crew due to storm response or local outage restrictions if the station is fed from a feeder with other customers on it.
The three sites you asked about (Prince Rupert, Burns Lake and Prince George) are currently between steps 4 and 6. Steps 7-9 is scheduled for tomorrow for Prince George and likely Friday for Burns Lake.
We’re currently working on getting these opened to the public as soon as possible and thank you for your patience.
I replied mentioning my love for BC Hydro and what they are doing but was concerned that we don’t seem to have dedicated people for EV charging infrastructure and always complete with other BC Hydro priorities which slows down EV adoption. To this I received the following reply:
Thanks Mark
As we move north, we will start to position more staff and contractors with the appropriate knowledge and expertise. The goal is to have the Highway 16 corridor in solid shape and very reliable before we push further north. We’re also coordinating with the Ministry of Transportation as they are building some of their own stations at highway rest areas to fill in all the gaps.
Our approach is to ‘strengthen’ the network before we expand it too fast as we know that reliability is very important. 2021 will be a big year to further strengthen the network.
We’re now positioning staff and EV’s in both Prince George and Prince Rupert to service that corridor.
Originally in the BC Hydro Webex meeting, it was mentioned that those chargers would be online sometime in 2021, but after this email exchange, it became clear these chargers were about to be switched on! Today (December 10, 2020) I was able to test the first DC Fast charger in Prince George, BC:
The good news is that Burns Lake, BC is scheduled to be switched on tomorrow (December 11, 2020) meaning the drive from Prince George, BC to Prince Rupert is actually feasible now! More videos and content to follow!