The new centre will facilitate charging 23 electric vehicles with a capacity of 400 kW, offering both fast and regular charging facilities. The charging station, located close to KIA parking area, will generate its own power during the day and store it in second-life batteries for charging vehicles in the night.
Being built at a cost of INR 4 crore, it will supply unused power to Bescom’s grid through a net metering facility. “It is an innovative project in the e-mobility sector and will be the first of its kind with a commercial application of second-life batteries. With 81 solar panels, the station will generate about 160 kWh of power per day. Once generated, it will be stored in batteries and transmitted to charging through inverters . If there are no vehicles, the generated power will be fed to the grid. As Bengaluru is witnessing a surge in EV usage, energy minister KJ George has been very particular about creating charging infrastructure and as per his guidance, this solar energy station has been planned,” said Mahantesh Bilagi, MD of Bescom.
According to senior engineers at Bescom, the plant is coming up on a 560 sq metre area along the main road, where Bescom has its 224 kV sub-station. “At the station, we are providing five combined charging systems (CCS-2) with a capacity of 50 kW along with four DC-001 chargeINR of 30 kW capacity and two type-2 chargeINR of 7.5 kW capacity. Besides, there will be one AC-001 type 3.3 kW charger,” explained Vijay Rao, AGM, Bescom.
The pilot project, in collaboration with the govt of India, GIZ India, Bosch, and Nunam, will further add to the charging infrastructure capacity that Bescom currently manages. Already, Bescom is leading the country with 5,765 public EV charging stations. Out of these, Bengaluru Urban alone has 4,462 charging stations.
Citizens can avail the charging facility by downloading EV Mitra app on their mobiles. “While the DC charging will cost INR 7.56 per unit, the AC charging will cost INR 7.76 per unit,” another Bescom engineer said.
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