Photo: Electrify America
If you happen to own an electric car and have tried to juice it up over the weekend at an Electrify America charging station, then you might have found that at least some of the chargers were down. The reason for this was a problem with some of the cables feeding the chargers.
On Tuesday, Electrify America admitted it had to shut down an undisclosed number – the company uses the word “many” - of chargers, at the request of the cable's manufacturer, HUBER+SUHNER.
The supplier asked for the chargers to be shut down because of a problem discovered at a private test facility in Europe, in the liquid-cooled cable used to power Electrify’s CCS chargers (150 kW – 350 kW).
As per HUBER+SUHNER, a short-circuit in the plug of a high-power prototype charging system occurred at one of its sites in Germany, with no one being hurt in the incident. As a precaution, the decision was made to test all cables, including the ones installed in the U.S.
As per official data, there were such issues in 89 charging stations, all of which have remained operational to some degree, thanks to the use of additional CHAdeMO, 50kW CCS, or L2 chargers.
According to Electrify America, extensive testing was done throughout the weekend and on the first day of this week to see if the problem can occur elsewhere. After specialists found that “the cables have met all industry standards for use,” the charging stations operator decided to restore full capacity to the network.
Neither Electrify America nor HUBER+SUHNER revealed the cause of the short circuit, but did stress the synthetic, non-conductive coolant used in the cables can be ruled out.
“The tests confirmed the correct functionality of the system and proved that the series products supplied by HUBER+SUHNER meet the required standards without any restrictions, both individually and in the entire charging system,” the Swiss company said in a statement.
The supplier asked for the chargers to be shut down because of a problem discovered at a private test facility in Europe, in the liquid-cooled cable used to power Electrify’s CCS chargers (150 kW – 350 kW).
As per HUBER+SUHNER, a short-circuit in the plug of a high-power prototype charging system occurred at one of its sites in Germany, with no one being hurt in the incident. As a precaution, the decision was made to test all cables, including the ones installed in the U.S.
As per official data, there were such issues in 89 charging stations, all of which have remained operational to some degree, thanks to the use of additional CHAdeMO, 50kW CCS, or L2 chargers.
According to Electrify America, extensive testing was done throughout the weekend and on the first day of this week to see if the problem can occur elsewhere. After specialists found that “the cables have met all industry standards for use,” the charging stations operator decided to restore full capacity to the network.
Neither Electrify America nor HUBER+SUHNER revealed the cause of the short circuit, but did stress the synthetic, non-conductive coolant used in the cables can be ruled out.
“The tests confirmed the correct functionality of the system and proved that the series products supplied by HUBER+SUHNER meet the required standards without any restrictions, both individually and in the entire charging system,” the Swiss company said in a statement.
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