Man named after service station to make electric charging improvements there

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Toddington Harper thinks he may have been destined to transform the motorway network since his parents named him after Toddington services on the M1 in Bedfordshire.

The businessman from Iver, in Buckinghamshire, is promising to make major improvements at motorway service stations allowing more drivers to charge the batteries of their electric vehicles quickly and efficiently.

Mr Harper's company, Gridserve, recently bought the existing network of almost 300 charge points at 150 locations, known as the Electric Highway, from the green energy company Ecotricity.

The plan is to replace all of those ageing devices with newer versions by September.

For the first time, it will be possible to use them with just a contactless debit or credit card instead of a smartphone app and two vehicles will be able to charge at once instead of one.

[broadgage]

This sort of thing is becoming mainstream and I hope that progress will be towards simplicity and reliability.

If the available electricity supply permits of ultra fast charging of TWO vehicles, then it would be worthwhile to provide THREE charging places. An automatic control would only permit of two being used at the same time.
Suppose that both ultra fast chargers are in use and a third vehicle arrives and parks in the third space. By the time that the third vehicle has parked, been connected, and payment has been authorised, it is likely that one of the other vehicles will have completed charging. If not, then the third vehicle will have to wait a minute or two.
Note that with this system that the third vehicle will AUTOMATICALY start charging as soon as one of the first two are "full" The driver of the third vehicle will not have to wait until the earlier arrived vehicle has been disconnected and removed.

One complication that should be worthwhile would be to offer heavily discounted charging for service center workers. If several public charging points are to be offered, then it would be relatively simple to offer another couple of staff only charging places. These would only be energised when capacity was available due to no customers charging.

[Bmblbzzz]

This sort of thing is becoming mainstream

Absolutely. I have friends and relatives called Michaelwood, Strensham and Heston, as well as WatfordGap.

[TaplowGreen]

This sort of thing is becoming mainstream

Absolutely. I have friends and relatives called Michaelwood, Strensham and Heston, as well as WatfordGap.

Lee De La Mare is a personal friend of mine (his Great Uncle Walter used to live in Taplow)

[eightonedee]

Next - will Heston Blumenthal take control of catering at service stations?

[grahame]

Next - will Heston Blumenthal take control of catering at service stations?

Late comers at the service station ball ...

Mr and Mrs Lane and their noisy daughter Clacket
Lord and Lady East, and their son Leicester Forest
The Corners and their son conceived in Greta, known as "Scotch"
John and Emma Charnock, and their son Richard
Bill and Melinda and their daughter Cardiff