eHGV CHARGING HUB @ NISSAN SUNDERLAND
GridServe
The overall project formed part of the UK Government-funded ZEHID initiative, with the goal of constructing an electric heavy goods vehicle charging hub at the Nissan manufacturing facility in Sunderland to support decarbonisation efforts.
The project
Enable was tasked with the design, build and commissioning of the charging hub. Following a survey conducted by Nissan to determine their planned truck usage and required charging times, the collected data was used to develop a comprehensive solution. This comprised a mixture of three electric truck charging stations in a drive-through layout, allowing trucks to remain coupled to their trailers whilst charging, plus four additional pull-in charging stations where trucks could park after unhitching their trailers.
The drive-through layout featured three 184kW vehicle chargers, whilst the pull-in bays consisted of three 360kW chargers and one additional 184kW vehicle charger.
The charging hub required 3,000 amps of power, necessitating its own dedicated 2.5MVA substation on-site.
The challenge
The land designated by Nissan for the charging hub was an unused area consisting of wet ground and gravel with a history as an RAF runway.
The site was located almost 300 metres from the nearest substation and required 1.5MVA of power. The cable route necessitated crossing a main factory road and the Nissan wind turbine ring main cabling. Additionally, access to the existing substation was at capacity, requiring a core drill to be undertaken underground in a safe location.
The solution
In-depth surveys were carried out to confirm the ground was suitable and safe for excavation and construction.
A new route was core-drilled safely outside factory working hours, 2 metres underground through a 2-metre wall into the substation alongside existing circuits.
A trench route was excavated under traffic management during weekends when traffic was minimal, allowing the HV cabling route to be installed from the existing substation to feed the newly installed and commissioned Enable 2.5MVA on-site substation.
All ground surfaces were reinforced with concrete to highway standards to ensure they could safely carry the heavy loads.
The deliverables
- 270-metre HV cabling trench route and cabling from existing substation to newly installed substation
- 2.5MVA open-air substation, customised and built on a bund, close-coupled to an 1,800-amp LV pillar to save space on-site
- Three 184kW electric truck vehicle charging stations built in drive-through style on drive-through islands
- Three 360kW electric truck vehicle charging stations built in pull-in/pull-out formation on a kerb line with pedestrian walkway behind
- One additional 184kW electric truck vehicle charging station
- Complete trenching, cabling and resurfacing, including highway-standard heavy goods vehicle reinforced concrete covering all vehicle routes, tarmacking and white lining/bay marking
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