EV charger/s needed in tourist town Martinborough?

Trickle-down EV charging doesn’t cut it in a tourism centre.

More than 101,000 electric cars _ EVs _ drive New Zealand roads, with more and more coming down the pipe _ or over the hill as EV-driving visitors add to the growing numbers of local electric carss.

Local business is already finding limitations, with no public charging units in Martinborough, the closest in Featherston, with up to two designated for installation – but not in place – in Greytown.

Carterton’s car park has four.

The problems faced locally boil down primarily to power infrastructure.

The power load drawn by a single Tesla, Leaf, Ioniq, BYD, MG or Peugeot which is on trickle charging may be fine – but the present power system can “flip its fuse” if two of the above try charging at the same time. 

Let alone the prospect of installing a fast charger for public use on a basic infrastructure system currently unable to supply the electric juice. The State Highway 2 infrastructure “corridor” has those necessary facilities.

At the Top 10 Holiday Park in Martinborough, trickle-down is the only option, with the electric infrastructure unable to supply at the power demand levels needed for even two Teslas to charge simultaneously. 

It just took a couple of Teslas charging on the same power supply to blow the camp’s fuses last year, said camp ground owner Lisa Cornelissen.

Now the campground has “rules and conditions in place” that people need to abide by if the fusebox is to remain functional, she told The Star. 

“An EV draws more power and it draws it constantly. So if you’ve got a camper-van and plug it in, they might draw more power occasionally if the kettle’s on and the heater’s on and they’re watching TV. But an EV draws that level of power constantly over time.”

There are options for upgrading the local power infrastructure, ranging from a load-balanced charger to a more expensive upgrade (“$50,000 to $80,000” said Cornelissen) – cost likely beyond local business-owners and something which is the bailiwick of Powerco, the power infrastructure provider for the area. And for generator/retailers, like Meridian and Genesis – with the latter having a power project already under way in the South Wairarapa.

South Wairarapa District Council hasn’t been able to install one at its Martinborough office _ the nearby power transformer isn’t up to it.

James O’Connor, district council Manager, Partnerships and Operations, said investigations have shown there is no excess electricity capacity at council locations to meet power requirements for EV charging units..

“To get the infrastructure there means upgrades to transformers, cables and everything.”

Other locations “like round the Square, which look ideal … don’t have any (power) infrastructure around them.”

He confirmed council is getting a lot of feedback and inquiries about whether/when charging stations may be available. The one charging station in Featherston already “has queues out the carpark” of EVs waiting to recharge.

“It makes sense for us to have more (charging stations) in South Wairarapa. It’s on the radar and we’re keeping a close eye on what’s coming out of central government.” 

The government has committed to increase the public charging network from 1,200 chargers to 10,000 across the country by 2030. Transport Minister Simeon Brown last week reaffirmed that commitment, noting “rolling out 10,000 public chargers is about addressing this (range anxiety) concern for those who are considering buying an EV.” Industry heads are querying whether it has thought about the need to upgrade power systems to improve charging and network capacity at local level to support the added demand.