We tried to “refuel” from the lamp. Welcome to chargers, which Prague wants hundreds of
We sat in the fully electric Opel Mokka-e and set off to test charging. In the PRE.Charge application, we randomly clicked on one of the free spots, let ourselves be navigated to Kladská street and backed into one free spot at the charger, the other was occupied by a charging plug-in hybrid.
The spot we chose was one of those equipped with both vertical and horizontal traffic signs, so it is only possible to park there while the vehicle is charging, the parked car must be connected to the charger port there and the charging process must be started. This is the charging start authorization status and the charging termination authorization status, with this color light status next to the charger connector. In addition, a time limit of 12 hours applies here, after which the vehicle must be reparked. However, any passenger car can be fully charged on this connection in 12 hours (and in most cases it is more like 3-6 hours).
So far, only part of the charging points have such traffic markings, according to Radim Štolfa, project manager of the THMP electromobility department, it should look like 10 out of 13 installed lamps (on Moravská, Korunní, Chodská, Kladská, Slezská and Slovenská streets).
This is so that there will be no shortage of parking spaces in the locality, the utilization of those reserved spaces, and accordingly it will monitor both signage in Vinohrady and in other parts of Prague. Of course, it is a matter of decency and consideration that drivers first use the places without chargers to park. However, as the situation with charging points in housing estates or shopping center parking lots shows, for many drivers it is too abstract and they are able to block charging points even in a half-empty parking lot. Much more education will be needed in this.
In 2022, another 55 EVR lamps were prepared in the locations of Prosek, Vokovice, Kamýk, Háje, Černý Most, Kobylisy, Bohnice, Dvorka, in Vršovice and in Velká Ohrada, in 2023 another 240 EVR lamps should be added and in the following years it is calculated with multiples of these numbers. In 2030, the capital city of Prague wants to have around 4,500 charging points ready (including installations by private entities).
THMP charging points will mostly be created in housing estates. By the end of 2022, for example, this happened in the Kamýk housing estate, next year THMP is expecting a giant project in the Velká Ohrada housing estate, where, according to Štolf, they will build 97 EVR lamps.
Big and ugly
A big discussion arose around the design of the charging points themselves, or rather the visual clumsiness of the chosen solution. This consists of the technical cabinets on the street light mast and the charging wallbox itself above it. According to Radim Štolf, there was currently no other solution. “Czech legislation requires that each wallbox be powered from a separate take-off point, so the installation includes a fuse box and an electricity meter box,” explains Štolfa.
Three knife fuses are hidden under one door, and a circuit breaker, an electric meter and an electric meter switchboard are hidden under the other, similar to the columns on the border of plots, for example, in family houses.
Minimalist connection points in old or at least historically designed columns, such as can be found for example in London, will not be the Prague standard in the future either. “The mentioned charging points in London are powered directly from the public lighting distribution, which we will not do in Prague. On the one hand, because the condition and concept of many lines does not allow it, on the other hand, because we want to look more into the future and continue to use 22 kW charging power at each port, which is far from being possible for lamps in London,” explains Štolfa’s choice of technical solution. A separate cable of the distribution system, which is dimensioned for the power consumption of faster charging with alternating current, leads to each prepared lamp. The offered power of 22 kW is higher than today’s most common on-board vehicle chargers can handle (the standard is 11 kW).
“In cooperation with the preservationists and the IPR, we are working on a more compact and elegant solution with which we would install the lamps in the future,” adds the THMP specialist.
Each charging point will offer the driver 22 kW of charging power, even if all other connection points are occupied and charging is fully loaded. “The Czech legislative environment does not yet recognize the concept of division, therefore the number of connections in the locality is firmly limited by the full capacity of the network, even if they will not be connected by fully loaded vehicles. The dynamic division of the charging power will of course be possible in the future, but legislation must come to this,” reckons Štolfa.
With active power management, it would be possible to serve only more charging cars in the location without changes to the existing electrical network.
Kilowatt hour for 6 CZK
THMP charging points were free until the end of December, from the first of January they are charged, for 1 kWh you pay CZK 6 including VAT, after completing 180 minutes, the time on the charger starts to be counted in the price of energy at CZK 0.50 per minute. they correspond to the more favorable price list of Pražská energetika for existing customers, while in the case of THMP, the period during which they pay only for energy and not for minutes is extended by 60 minutes. If you want to charge the AC often, you can buy a monthly package “AC at rest” with prepaid 100 kWh of energy and 1,440 free minutes (24 hours) for 600 CZK.
From the first of February, according to the PRE price list, the price for 1 kWh has increased to CZK 8, and the price of “AC at rest” has increased to CZK 800.
Authorization and start of charging will be possible with both a PRE chip and a THMP chip or a Lítačka card, you can sign up for the service using the form on the prahanabiji.cz website. In an emergency, it will also be possible to use QR payment, where you pay according to time and the prices are generally less favorable.
Sites are growing and accelerating
Of course, not only slower AC residential charging points are growing in the city, but also charging hubs with high-speed DC chargers. We were interested, for example, in the location commissioned in December in the parking lot of the shopping center in Letňany, where eight 50kW ABB Terra DC stations (each simultaneously offering one 22kW AC port) and one ultra-fast Siemens Sicharge D station with two 150kW connections were installed.
Up to ten high-speed cars and another nine slower ones can be charged in the parking lot at the Letňany shopping center.
During December, the fast food location in nearby Kbelská street was also upgraded.
Of the four original 50kW DC Stations ABB Terra was once replaced by a modular 300kW Alpitronic Hypercharger station, the currently available charging power is 225kW (three of the four modules are installed).