ePower Dublin rollout

JohnC.

e-Power, in conjunction with Dublin City, Fingal, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin councils say they're rolling out 200 charge points at 50 sites in council owned car parks. Not a lot of detail yet, with all sited not decided yet. The first ones are to come in Q1 2025.

The mention they will include contactless payment, which normally means DC chargers, right? I don't recall seeing AC chargers with any built-in payment.

https://www.thejournal.ie/electric-vehicle-chargers-in-dublin-6512878-Oct2024/

ted1

90% of the chargers will be offering 100kW speeds. All fast chargers will conveniently support tap and go contactless payment via debit or credit cards

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/A4GeCPfd737EvZG3/?mibextid=WC7FNe

they’ll be delayed as they won’t get a supply from the grid in time

innrain

Dublin authorities decided against all, that the future is DC and DC only. As for the locations some are

"The final locations are still being decided but they will be provided the website of each local authority, the ePower app and on the Driivz platform but some of the initial locations will include:

Baldoyle Library
Bremore Castle
Donabate Portrane Community Centre
Howth Harbour
Porterstown Park, Castleknock
Windsor Terrace
Killiney Dart Station
Sandyford Park
Tallaght Stadium
Bushy Park
Dodder Valley Car Park
Palmerstown
North Clondalkin Library
St Anne's Park
Cabra Library
Ballyfermot Leisure Centre
Raheny Library
Wellmount Road, Finglas"

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2024/1011/1474817-ev-chargers-dubling/

MarkN

Best of luck with Baldoyle library. It’s constantly a busy junction and someone trying to park there to charge is going to be a disaster.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122712068#Comment_122712068

I was thinking the same thing, I didn't even know there was parking there

I get the idea of using council land so there's no hold ups on negotiating a lease, but there must be somewhere better nearby

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122710400#Comment_122710400

While I'd definitely say that mass rollout of AC chargers is better in the long term, I'm forced to agree that DC chargers will give the best return in the short term

It would have been nice if the councils could've demonstrated some forward thinking back in the day and made it a lot easier to install on street chargers

innrain

I don't think Dublin LAs had any term in consideration when they took the decision. I have studied their policies documents and even minutes from their meetings related to the subject starting from 2018. One of the most resistant of them is DCC. People with power of decision in these meeting have said "we loose parking spaces if we install chargers", "we're not in the business of selling electricity" and much more. As for the policy document I was referring to, the consultants recommend AC charging network given examples of larger capitals in Europe who did so, i.e London, Amsterdam, but decision is taken to install DC hubs. Further down in the document they also say that this is not going to be feasible due to power constraints. It is one of those documents where one can see the conclusion was written first.

I think the first and foremost we have to ask what is the objective of chargers being installed by the LAs? Why did the gov asked, and given money to the LAs to install chargers? If it is to provide access to charging facilities to residents who don't have it, for a reason or other, but still own a car and park on the street already, then the answer to me is obvious. Then those cars won't take additional parking space and they would be providing a public service to their constituents. By adding DC hubs, they create the need to drive to a place where I have no business to be just to charge. Parking spaces will have to be reserved for charging and I can bet the chargers will be pretty low in power, poorly maintained and expensive, and because of these, underutilized. After the first run, they'll come and say "the market doesn't want us to install chargers"

Del2005

All well and good making the announcement if it's not cost effective then they won't be used. Looking at a place with an epower charger and it's charging 59c for a 22kW charger. If they use similar pricing for these hubs then no boby will use them and the councils can say that they provided charging hubs but the public didn't use them, while ignoring the reason why they didn't get used.

People will switch to BEVs if they are good for the pocket and environment, no one is changing just for the environment.

freddieot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122717284#Comment_122717284

Personally I'd be against any policy of providing chargers to be used by any specific constituents on the road they already use for parking. Public money should be used to benefit everyone. If the spots could only be used for charging and have a max time use then that's a different scenario. The downside then of course for such residents is that their normal parking spots on the roadside are gone as they have become charging spots. A hard one to resolve.

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122717397#Comment_122717397

I think would put an AC outlet at every parking space on a road but wouldn't mark the spaces as EV charging spaces. Residents with ICE cars can continue to park there, residents with EVs without private parking can park & charge there if there is space. I would only do that on streets where there is zero private parking and where the footpath is wide enough to have space for the extra equipment without encroaching on pedestrian space.

I suspect the last part is where some in DCC have a problem with it: they (rightly!) get abuse for footpaths full of junk but then get abuse for not providing AC charging. If/when AC chargers go in, they'll get abuse because of the extra clutter on the footpath and from people who can't get a space (their space!) to charge at night. At least one of those people will be on the phone to Joe Duffy because they couldn't bring their terribly ill child to hospital because their battery was low because they couldn't charge because someone else was in their space. In the face of all that abuse, it's easy to see why they went for the community DC hub approach.

innrain

The official press release

https://www.dublincity.ie/news/significant-rollout-ev-infrastructure-begins-dublin-leads-charge