Finnish parking garage, Vaasan Toripysäköinti Oy has updated its electric car charging points in collaboration with the electricity company Vaasan Sähkö. ABB was also involved in this project alongside the network construction contractor Ravera, the electrical distributor SLO and the construction group Granlund. Prior to this installation there were four charging points available in the garage, these have now been replaced with a total of nine new charging points – including one fast-charging option. As part of this project an ABB Kabeldon distribution board was customized due to the amount of power needed in the charging process. This was enabled by SLO.
An ABB Kabeldon distribution board customized for high currents
At Vaasan Sähkö’s request, Ravera installed one 50 kW fast DC charger and four 22 kW double AC chargers in Vaasa’s market square parking garage. In addition to the chargers themselves, Ravera’s task included drawing two cables from the medium voltage transformer room on the top level of the parking garage to the ABB Kabeldon distribution board. The electric cables were installed on a cable rack, and a lead-through was created for drawing the cables to the lower level, where the ABB Kabeldon distribution board and the car charging stations were located. Ravera also installed the ABB Kabeldon board, and connected the supply cables and busbars required. The supply of each car-charging panel was drawn from the busbars mounted on a wall.
Since the power requirement was so high, a custom ABB Kabeldon distribution board was ordered through the distributor SLO.
“This Kabeldon distribution board was custom-made by ABB to fit this purpose and to meet the high power requirement. Because the distribution board is in a public space, its design needs to endure a certain amount of vandalism. The board is also equipped with appropriate locks. It was also possible to equip the board with fuse switch modules and sufficient fuses during assembly,” says Ravera CEO Leif Smeds.
SLO key account salesperson Johnny Råholm was involved in the procurement of the ABB Kabeldon distribution board, and says the following about the choice:
“Since Kabeldon boards are commonly used to distribute high electric currents, and they could be adapted to the needs of Toriparkki with minor changes, the decision was easy.”
The new charging points have been in demand
CEO of Vaasan Toripysäköinti Oy and Kiinteistö Oy Rewell Galleria Susanna Spak is pleased that the electric parking services provided by Vaasan Toripysäköinti and Vaasan Sähkö are serving the city center and service providers’ customers well. Spak has only positive things to say about the project as a whole.
“There were certainly a lot of players involved in this project, but everything went smoothly. We even discussed details together like at which time each task should be carried out, since we were talking about a heavily used parking garage. Once we were able to define who was doing what in the contract, I have to say that the project couldn’t have gone better.”
According to Vaasan Sähkö, the customers also seem to have easily found the new charging location.
“The project went very well and ran on schedule, apart from minor delays. The customers also seem to have found the new charging location, and there have been a fair number of users from the start,” enthuses Jyrki Rajala from Vaasan Sähkö.
