Expected to be Australia’s second biggest battery, the proposed 100MW, 200MWh big battery will be bigger than 20 tennis courts, side-by-side, and have the capacity to power 160,000 homes for two hours, and to be housed at the decommissioned Kwinana Power Station.
WA’s energy sector is experiencing a rapid transformation, with a major uptake of largescale renewables and rooftop solar. One in three households have rooftop solar panels and this is expected to rise to 50 per cent of households by 2030.
Increased pressure on WA’s electricity system and inaction could result in significant blackouts in coming years.
The big battery will support integration of more renewable energy and improve grid security. It can be charged during the day, when the sun is shining and energy is plentiful, and discharge this energy when it is most needed during the afternoon and evening peak.
Batteries will help the wider electricity system and the market by ‘smoothing’ demand issues, such as low load, which is encountered when customer solar generation is high but power demand is low.
Our October Casual Meetup will be at the annual Rotary Como Car Show at Wesley College, South Perth. We have a few owners showing their cars, including the Targa-conquering Model 3.
This year the show is on Sunday October 4th, from 10am, Public entry $10 adult, $8 conc., gold coin under 18 – all proceeds to Rotary and Wesley charities.
Feel free to pop past any time for a chat, and also to chat with the many interested members of the public that come along. It’d be great if you’re happy to stay for a bit, and give those owners bringing their cars a break to go get a coffee!
Now that the Lake Grace DC charger is installed and operational the Perth to Esperance drive has become so much easier. I’ve completed the 700km trip in a Model S three times since early 2017 using the slow but reliable 3 phase AC charging.
To make the journey as trouble free and relaxing as possible
read on:
Perth to Esperance is 700kms via Williams and Ravensthorpe, the Perth to Lake Grace leg is 326kms, Lake Grace to Esperance 374kms.
On average you will lose 20 minutes of daylight driving East towards Esperance but gain an average 20 minutes on the return journey West, driving at dusk between Ravensthorpe and Esperance is not recommended so please take the above into consideration.
The Albany highway section of 168kms between Perth and Williams can get fairly busy, driving below 100kmh is not recommended or you’ll be very unpopular with the business people who use this road on a daily basis.
The Williams to Lake Grace section is flat and fairly good for range, take note if you’re driving into an easterly and factor that into the remaining range.
The 186km section between Lake Grace and Ravensthorpe is generally a low traffic road that can be driven a bit slower if needed. Be warned that at certain times of the year grain trucks are using this road, give them every opportunity to do their job as quickly and safely as possible.
The 188km section between Ravensthorpe and Esperance is not too busy but the traffic moves fast, it’s also a deceptive road, long sections of very good surface with random spots in need of repair from water damage, take note of the shire warning signs, it could very save you from tyre and rim damage.
Don’ be rigid in your trip plan, allow extra time for unexpected delays.
Spare tyre and jack, CARRY THESE ITEMS, although you are very unlikely to get a flat tyre, not having a spare when you need one will make it a very expensive and time consuming trip, not the type of memories you want while on holiday. Roadside repair kits are a plan C and are no substitute for a spare tyre in regional WA. Contact the TOCWA secretary regarding a loan spare and advice (free to TOWCA members).
When leaving from Perth I highly recommend you depart as
early as possible; firstly there’s less traffic to deal with on the outskirts
of town; secondly you have time up your sleeve to stop and take some photos; thirdly
and most importantly it’s nice to arrive at your final destination, get the car
on charge and relax with a drink before sunset.
How early? That’s up to you but sunrise is a great time to be on the road. If you don’t mind getting some driving done before breakfast the Williams Woolshed is a great first stop for a meal and a short top up charge using the Tesla HPWC, it may only be 11kw but as the saying goes “Always be charging”.
Lake Grace is your main charging stop and it’s likely that
will take 50 to 80 minutes, if you’re a first time visitor it’s easy to use up
that time going for a short walk and having some lunch. The DC charger is
currently set to stop charging at 95%, this isn’t really an issue as by that
stage the charge rate has likely dropped to a level where the Lake Grace DC
charger has no advantage over the AC charging in Williams or Ravensthorpe.
Pro tip: There’s a good chance the moment you arrive a local will walk over and start asking about the car, make sure you plug in and confirm your car is charging before having a long conversation. Once again “Always be charging”.
Ravensthorpe is a small but lovely town that is well worth the stop even if you don’t need to charge, there’s an IGA supermarket on the hillside with a Cafe that provides a nice view. If you do need a top up charge Ravensthorpe’s Green Haven caravan park has a Tesla destination charger that cost the owners more to install than they’ll ever get back from the 50 cents per kWh charging fee. Back in 2017 when no one in Ravensthorpe had any interest in EV charging Claire at the caravan park stepped up. They also have some reasonable priced chalets if driving Perth to Esperance in one day is hard yakka.
Ravensthorpe IGA is a great spot to grab a coffee and check out the view.
Esperance is a great place to relax for a few days, there are two locations with Tesla destination chargers (Smith Street Holiday House and Comfort Inn Bay of Isles) plus the horizon power type 2 via the Chargefox app (BYO cable). There’s plenty to do within walking distance including the local museum which has much more to see than just the Skylab wreckage. If you have time to spare a 90km drive east to the Duke of Orleans Bay is worth the effort, as well as the beautiful white sand beaches there’s a gem of a pub in the village of Condingup that back in 2017 served a tasty lunch.
Duke of Orleans Bay.
For the return to Perth, if you want to be a bit more adventurous there are two options, via Jerramungup (Tesla HPWC) & Albany or North via Kalgoorlie. If you want alternate recommendations let me know.
In fantastic news for all Tesla owners, we are thrilled to confirm that a supercharger station is being installed in Williams early next year at the Williams Woolshed. It will be a great day when our Eaton Supercharger finally loses its coveted most isolated Supercharger in the world honor.
If you’re a longer term Tesla follower cast your mind back to March 2016, Tesla were about to display the mass produced Model 3 for the first time and the small (by today’s standards) Tesla fan base were salivating at the thought of a reasonable cost electric vehicle with the style and potential performance of the Tesla Model S. Anyone who had been for a drive in a Tesla product were excited, Legacy auto were not, Tesla was just background noise while they continued building vehicles with 20th century technology. As far as Legacy auto was concerned Tesla was just a niche product purchased by fanatics, the customer base was small and would soon dry up. 48 hours after the Model 3 reveal Tesla had over 300,000 deposits for the model 3, a car many would not receive for over 3 years, that was the last time Legacy auto would underestimate Tesla.
Anything Tesla announce on battery day will gain the full attention of the worlds car makers and likely lead to massive investments in research and development in an attempt to keep up with Tesla, the winners out of this will be the worlds car buyers.
Tesla battery day could bring a battery with better energy density, a battery that will have a useful life of well over a million kilometres, possibly a battery that can be charged at a far faster rate than currently available. It could be none of the above and it still won’t matter, Tesla only need one breakthrough and in the eyes of the fence sitters waiting to buy an electric car a Tesla goes from almost as good as ICE to slightly better than an ICE in total cost of ownership, it doesn’t take much to tip the scales for good.
So what is the most likely announcement on battery day? Amongst many small advancements I think the important one will be faster battery production allowing more efficient use of the facilities and factory workers that will lead to lower costs per kWh of batteries. This reduction in cost may only be 15 to 20% but that’s enough to create the tipping point necessary to assign the internal combustion engine to history.
One of the best ways to progress electric vehicle charging is through local government, especially in regional areas, shires and councils are always looking to promote their green credentials but more so will listen intently when it’s pointed out that EVs can boost regional tourism.
So what is the best type of charging for shires and councils to install? Read on to get some ideas.
DC charging – obviously it would be preferable to have as many DC fast chargers as possible, it’s also obvious the total install cost makes this extremely difficult unless the charger is donated to the location or there’s a councillor or CEO who’s determined to see EVs progress no matter the cost, this has happened on occasions but is very rare, that’s where AC charging is a good foot in the door. AC charging – the clear benefit of AC charging is the total installed cost per kW of charging power, to wire in a 3 phase plug would cost $500 at the most, a Tesla HPWC install cost is $1500 at the extreme end of the scale but generally $300 to $700 each, AC charging will provide up to 22kw of charging power to an early Tesla Model S or 11kw to a Model 3. Compared to a 50kw DC charger with a purchase price of $35,000 minimum and install costs between $5000 and $60,000, dependent on the existing electricity infrastructure, you can see the better value of an AC install. The not so known advantage of AC charging is the lack of red tape holding up the install, an electrician will attend the site, make a decision on the the available power supply and if it’s viable the AC charger is installed and operational within a week. DC chargers on the other hand incur a lot of red tape, once every bureaucrat has had their share of the pie the cost and install time frame has become less than reasonable, no doubt when service stations and fast food stores start installing DC chargers the red tape issue will reduce rapidly. As much as we would all like to see a rapid roll out of DC chargers, promoting AC charging with shires and councils to get the conversation started is the best approach. Very often once a low cost AC charge point is installed and is getting regular use the possibility of a DC charger later in time gets discussed.
We also have a number of events scheduled in the school holidays
Our October Casual Meetup will be at the annual Rotary Como Car Show at Wesley College, South Perth. If you’re interested in showing off your Tesla, get in touch.
This year the show is on Sunday October 4th, from 10am, Public entry $10 adult, $8 conc., gold coin under 18 – all proceeds to Rotary and Wesley charities.
Our other big event for October is our overnight drive to the wheatbelt town of Kulin, home of the famous waterslide, and right in the heart of wildflower country. We’re planning to stay overnight from October 10th to 11th.
We’ll be limiting the organised drivers to 20 for this drive with convoys taking a pair of routes. There is hotel, AirBnB and camping accomodation options.
There’s never a shortage of comments about batteries whenever renewable energy is a topic of discussion. One battery that always gets a mention is the Tesla mega battery in Hornsdale South Australia, it’s held up as a shining light of success and the question is then always asked “why don’t other Australian states commission a mega battery?” Without doubt politics plays a part but more importantly just because the mega battery is a success in SA doesn’t mean it will suit all other states or territories of Australia.
The Hornsdale Battery, South Australia
To keep it simple I’ll put batteries into 4 different categories and how they can be useful for one State but not necessarily for another.
Mega Packs such as the Hornsdale battery – The politicians and media who called this a White Elephant back in 2017 have been proved incorrect more than most could ever imagine. The battery’s ability to respond instantly to electricity demand, buying in power at extremely low prices and selling back high is a continual winner for its owners. No doubt this could almost be replicated in some other states with similar electricity production profiles to SA. One thing to remember though is the Hornsdale battery can be likened to the only Taxi in town, add more Taxis and the rewards are less.
Community battery
Community battery packs – At the time of writing Western Australia has 13 community battery packs averaging 460kwh capacity each. It would take approximately 400 community battery packs to equal the Hornsdale battery storage but that comparison is not really relevant as they’re performing slightly different tasks. Firstly the community batteries are soaking up local excess daytime solar energy then feeding it back into the grid at the busy dinner time period; secondly its a great marketing exercise from the State’s power providers. All those very visible community batteries are essentially a billboard, no doubt a few locals in each suburb will have the confidence to install their own home battery if the power providers are seen to be supporting the technology, from then on one or two home batteries in each street soon start a trend as prices fall.
Home batteries – For most West Australians these are seen as expensive, without doubt to make it cost effective the home has to be set up to make full use of a battery/solar combination. If your arithmetic still shows the return on investment is not sufficient then the value of having electricity available 24/7 when the grid fails is priceless.
Home Battery storage
The electric car battery – Although vehicle to grid (V2G) is being trialled in the ACT it’s not critical that this system is up and running immediately, in fact in Western Australia V2G will be far less useful than the Eastern states grid. The most pressing need for the Perth and South west grid is the ability to soak up excess daytime solar, the already high uptake of rooftop solar is increasing month on month. The State’s power grid generates power from Coal, Gas, multiple wind farms and rooftop solar, generation is cheap but matching varying demand with different generation profiles can be a costly exercise for the companies supplying the power. With smart power pricing in times of high solar generation and low consumer demand fleets of electricity vehicles are a great addition to the customer base.
In summary each Australian state will make use of each type of battery depending on their individual needs, for Western Australia the state owned grid operators need to seriously consider the benefits of electric vehicle batteries that are purchased by the vehicle owners but will have a positive impact on the power grid.
This weekend was a milestone for Electric Vehicles with a Telsa Model 3 being the winner of the Targa 130 category in Pemberton on Saturday 8th August. The team of Jurgen and Helen Lunsmann ended the event well ahead of the rest of their field.
Over the years a number of EVs have entered the Targa events in Western Australia with an iMiev, Tesla Model S (non competitive) and BMW i3s enjoying participation. Over recent years Gemtek EV racing have entered the more competitive event with the original Tesla Roadster and now the Tesla Model 3 (thanks to Jon Edwards). With the Roadster the major hurdle was getting enough charge in quickly to stay competitive, this has involved some experimentation with AC charging via a generator.
Tesla Model 3
One of the main issues with using a generator was the use of diesel and the usual comments regarding charging an EV from fossil fuels, as well as needing a faster charge. A comparison of charging an EV via a diesel generator and powering a diesel vehicle can be found here. In order to find a faster way to charge has led to the invention of the ChargePod, a fast DC charger connected to a generator (ideal for remote outback charging) which is also able to be fuelled using waste cooking oil. This year at Targa the ChargePod idea was used which enabled not only the competitive Model 3 to complete all stages successfully, but also allowed the 5 Model 3s’ and the converted EV Proton Ute in the Targa Tour to charge. Another more exciting fast charging option this year was the EV to EV charger, a Kona Electric vehicle is able to divert energy from its battery pack via a DC charger attached to the rear cargo area to the Model 3.
The Targa event in Pemberton consisted of five different stages with multiple runs in each stage: Big Brook; Pump Hill; Northcliffe; Gloucester and Pemberton Town. After the first run the No: 24 Tesla Model 3 in the 130 category already had a 00:15 lead, with the gap lengthening over each run to finally finish with a 04:23 lead (that’s 4 minutes and 23 seconds), Jurgen and Helen were unbeatable by the time they had started the final run. For more details on the days results click here.
Targa Tour included Model 3s’ and an Electric Ute
The next Targa West event is scheduled from 22nd to 25th October with stages set in Ellenbrook, Kalamunda, Toodyay, Chittering, Bullsbrook and Malaga, culminating with the Perth City Sprint on the 25th.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of Florian Popp and the Gemtek team and supporters EV’s are making waves in Rally circles.
