Case Studies
Public EV Charging at Woolworths
JET Charge, Australiaโs leading EV charging infrastructure and technology company, partnered with Woolworths to innovate a new standard of charging at the supermarket chainโs brand new North Parramatta store.
The largest retail installation of its kind in New South Wales, the site features four 7kW AC chargers alongside an ultra-rapid 200kW Power Unit with four load-sharing DC charging plugs. This setup offers one of the fastest and most efficient charging experiences in the country.
location
NSW
product
- Illuminate
Industry
- Public Charging
The Challenge
Woolworths is Australiaโs largest supermarket chain with a market share of 37 percent. Such a big retail footprint means that at its peak, the Woolworths Group accounts for 1 percent of the countryโs total electricity usage. With this knowledge, Woolworths has pledged to become net carbon zero positive by 2050. Specific markers on this path include a commitment to powering all their stores with renewable electricity by 2025 and replacing their home-delivery trucks with a fleet of EVs by 2030.โฏ
As part of their sustainability journey, Woolworths partnered with JET Charge as a trusted industry leader to help advise and implement ambitious and innovative solutions in the EV charging space. The North Parramatta project represents a complete paradigm shift in the market and blueprint for commercial retail EV stations across the country.โฏ
KEY CHALLENGES:
Forward Planning
The lack of fast-charging stations in Australia is often cited as a barrier to EV uptake, so the new Woolworths site at North Parramatta presented an opportunity to rethink the way things had been done previously by incorporating ultra-rapid DC chargers into the design. This required long-range planning to account for power supply and capacity to scale up.โฏ
Integration
As more players enter the EV market in Australia, a big challenge for the industry is how different charging technologies are integrated with one another.โฏCurrently, most EV suppliers design payment apps or credit card terminals that are manufacturer-specific. This is not only frustrating for drivers, as they need to have multiple apps on their phone but can cause problems for charging sites when it comes time to scale-up or introduce a new range of suppliers.โฏโฏ
The Solution
At JET Charge, we view ultra-rapid DC charging sessions as the future โ they’re integral to the EV driver experience. With careful forward planning and an ambitious mindset we worked with Woolworths to plan, install and maintain the largest retail AC/DC charging site in NSW.
End-to-end services: JET Charge has been in the market for 10 years as a leading EV system designer, supplier and installer, making us uniquely positioned to take on this kind of project. We have a team of 170 employees, plus hundreds of electrical contractors out in the field at any given time. This means we’re one of the few companies with the expertise to bring this charging station to life, and the capacity to provide ongoing technical support and maintenance for Woolworths.
Built to scale: For this job, in addition to the four DC charging plugs already installed, we provisioned for another two plugs at the North Parramatta site, which are ready to go when Woolworths feel the need to ramp up their charging capabilities. Planning has also been done to ensure that Woolworths is ready to scale-up the carpark to install additional chargers, as required. This kind of forward planning can save a client substantial money as it avoids the additional costs of trying to retrofit additional chargers at a later date.
A commitment to being hardware agnostic: From early on in the piece JET Charge made a commitment to being hardware agnostic. As part of this commitment, we will be rolling out JET Charge PayMate Ultra โ a credit card terminal that can control up to 60 EV chargers from different suppliers.
Seamless payment with PayMate Ultra: With a user-friendly interface that doesn’t require logging in, PayMate Ultra allows drivers to start, finish and pay for their charging sessions seamlessly via credit card. Users can then scan the dynamic QR code to track their session and even get a receipt. The JET Charge PayMate Ultra terminal is not only great for clients like Woolworths, who now have the option to choose different EV suppliers based on their evolving requirements, but also reflects the latest direction from the Australian government that EV payment methods need to be standardised.
HARDWARE SOLUTION
- 1 x 200kW Kempower Power Unit
- 4 x dynamic load-sharing DC charging plugs
- 4 x 7kW Chargemate AC charging plugs
- PayMate Ultra
Outcome and Results
The Future of EV Charging in Australia
The Woolworths North Parramatta EV Charging site represents the future of EV charging in Australia. With our 360 and customer-focussed approach to planning, installing, innovation, and maintenance JET Charge has worked with Woolworths to launch a world-leading EV charging station hub, which functions as the gold standard blueprint for all commercial retail charging sites going forward.โฏโฏโฏ
โThis is the new benchmark. What this system represents is a shift in thinking โโฏit’s not enough to only have a few AC chargers anymore, you really need to be offering a variety of options that can be scaled, incorporate different technologies and blend different manufacturers.โ
Tim Washington
JET Charge CEO and Co-Founder
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