Welcome to season three of MTE's Plugged in podcast.

This season, we will continue to explore the world of electric vehicles.

Whether you're a seasoned EV driver or you're just beginning your journey into electric vehicles, this podcast is for you.

For a more enhanced experience, be sure to watch the video version of this podcast that will be linked in the show notes.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to MTE's plus podcast.

I'm Amy Byers, and as always, I'm here with Brandon Wagner.

And we are actually on location today in Franklin, Tennessee at the MTE office.

Do you want to tell everybody why we're on location today?

Yeah.

Today has been a good day.

We're commissioning our third DC Fast charging station here at our Franklin office on Edward Curd Lane.

So we've been outside, they're doing some final testing, but, you know, we broke ground on this about a month ago.

This project's been in the works for about a little over a year, actually.

So it's an exciting day to be at this point.

Yeah.

And before we get into the nitty gritty about this specific charger, I want us, because this is our third one, and so I want us kind of to go back and talk a little bit about the project from the very beginning.

And I want you to tell us a little bit about the Tennessee Fast Charging Network and then how MTE has partnered with TVA and T DEC and how MTE is kind of fitting into that and the locations of the chargers we have.

Yeah.

So right around a year ago, we actually had our big ribbon cutting in Lebanon for our first site.

Part of the same program, the Tennessee Fast Charge Network.

TVA and TDAC came up with that program to solve a charging corridor issue that they had identified.

And so their vision was, we want to have DC fast charging locations within every 50 miles on every major corridor in the state of Tennessee.

And we were fortunate that we have some locations that we applied for.

And we were granted three of those applications as charging site hosts.

One was in Lebanon, right off of Interstate 40.

One is we commissioned last fall in Murfreesboro, right off of I 24.

And then this one is right behind us is I 65.

So we're right off I 65.

2156 Edward Curd Lane.

So these are a part of a grant where 80% of the cost to put these chargers in place was paid for by TVA and T Deck.

So very fortunate and thankful for those partnerships to make this happen.

Yeah.

And luckily our offices are right by the interstates, so that worked out like you said, the Lebanon office, Murfreesboro, which is by 40.

Our Murfreesboro Central Office, which is right there by 24.

And then the Lebanon or the Franklin office, which is by 65.

So we were very fortunate that we had those, those points.

I mean, and literally all three of these offices are right off the interstates.

So you're not going far at all to find these chargers.

Part of the specification for the grant is that the location has to be within a mile of the interstate.

So all three of these are within one mile of those major interstates.

Yeah.

So this one is our third DC fast charger.

So let's talk a little bit, maybe a little bit about the other chargers and then this charger and the differences between.

Because we've kind of done each one a little different.

So kind of talk a little bit about that and then we'll kind of get into the nitty gritty of what we've got going on here.

Franklin.

Yeah.

Every site is unique and has its own special component to it.

Our Lebanon sight is very special to us because they are tritium hardware chargers.

Of course, you know, Tridium has their manufacturing plant right there in Lebanon, just a few miles from those chargers.

What's interesting about that is that ZEF Energy actually serves as the software and communications component for those Tritium chargers actually today.

The ones that we're going to talk about today also use zef.

It's different hardware, but some familiarity there with communications and that sort of thing.

Our central office, our Murfreesboro location, those are electric era chargers.

They're unique in the fact that they have 500 kilowatts of battery right there co located.

And so one of the things we're trying to do is figure out ways to make sure that charging is grid friendly.

So in the event that the grid is stressing, we can pull that energy right from the battery rather than the grid.

And then today our chargers are Chem power chargers.

And again, ZEF Energy serves as the, the back end, the communications, the, the payment system, all that.

So a lot of familiarity there for us on that perspective.

Yeah.

So we're, let's now circle back to.

We're in, we're in Franklin today and we have put in Chem power chargers and we have, we're using ZEF Energy again.

So tell me, why did we pick that route?

Like, why are we going that route for Franklin?

Yeah.

These Kim Power units are special in a sense that they, you know, the biggest thing for us when we were looking at a charging manufacturer is what is the uptime going to be?

And I'm sure our listeners are well aware that there are a lot of stations that are out there, are not maintained very well and the uptime is really low.

And the last thing we want is for folks to go out of their way to charge and they get there and it's not working.

So that was paramount to us is quality of the design.

Not only the design itself and the materials used, but also there are ways to design for reliability in mind.

These chargers are designed to be pretty modular so that if a component were to, were to go bad, it's intelligent and it can pull energy from other components, then those components that are bad can actually be slid out pretty easily and replaced and you're back up and running, maximizing the uptime.

The other thing we loved about this Chem power units is the Zef component.

Zef gives us a lot on the back end, helps us to really understand what are the charging behaviors, what's the data behind the charging usage, what are the costs associated with it and that sort of thing.

So we've really enjoyed being able to harvest that data and learn more from it.

So the other thing about Zef, and you know, the CEO of Zef is here today and one thing that is neat about Matthew, the CEO is that he's not your typical CEO.

He's out there hands on very much, making sure that these are meeting his high expectations.

So the great thing about a company like Zef is when we do need support, it's a small enough company, we can call them and get immediate support.

And we've relied on them in the past and it's been a good partnership.

Well, good.

So let's talk a little bit about the charging experience.

So what would someone expect?

What would they need to go through?

They're getting off the interstate, they're pulling up to the charger and then what?

Tell us a little bit about the experience.

Yeah, so number one, you do not need an app to use these chargers.

That's the number one thing we hear from folks is, oh, I don't want to download another app.

Now you can download an app.

There's the Zef Energy app.

You can download that.

The only reason you would want to do that is if you need a receipt.

Sometimes people are charging a company car and they need that receipt.

So if you do need that, go ahead and download that Zef Energy app.

There's a QR code.

It makes it very simple to scan the QR code and charge Otherwise there's a pay tap to pay, or you can slide your credit card in.

It's just a regular paid terminal, similar to a gas station.

So these are easy to use from that perspective.

These are CCS chargers.

It's a four charging post, but each charger charging post actually has two dispensers.

So technically we can charge up to eight vehicles simultaneously here.

Which is wild because the very first thing I noticed when I pulled up, I think of this very first thing I said when I came in is those things are tiny.

Like, they're not.

What I'm used to seeing are the big rectangle boxes.

And these are just almost little posts.

I know.

It kind of looks like a level 2 charging post.

Yeah, so.

And what's really neat about them is that, you know, they are CCs or there's one that's a Chademo port.

The rest are CCs.

But they are developing the NACS cable.

So eventually we will swap some of those out for NACs so that we can accommodate anybody that, you know, NACS is going to be the future.

And we want to make sure that these were going to adapt to the future.

So.

And they will.

The other thing about these chargers, they are 200kW chargers.

So that's the max you can pull.

We do have a cost associated to them at $0.40 per kilowatt hour, which is around the standard.

And we'll talk a little more about that.

But that's.

You're leading me into my next question because we've had some questions from members about our charging rate and, you know, the price point of that.

So let's talk a little bit about why we're charging, what we're charging and why it is more than if you were just plugging it at home.

Yeah.

And I'm really glad we have this question because hopefully people will realize there's a lot of thought that goes into what the number should be.

And, you know, obviously we've got to get that return back on the 20% we did pay.

The other thing is we've got to pay TVA energy that we're delivering as part of this.

And the third thing is, and we could, you know, I love talking about rates.

We won't get into it now, but there's just enough of.

Let me just say this about the rate component for commercial accounts like this one is there's a demand component to the rate.

So it's not like our home.

Right?

Our home.

We have a per kwh cost.

Well, there's a Demand cost for commercial accounts, non residential accounts.

And so that actually does make the cost a little bit higher than what you would get at your home for our bill to tva.

And the reason for that is because there's a lot of infrastructure that has to go in and that's sort of how they do cost recovery on TVA to get that demand charged to pay for that infrastructure build out.

So it is a little different.

It's not apples to apples.

But you're right.

Most people, if you're, you can charge at home.

I would say charge at home.

We, we expect most people to continue to do that.

This is really more for people who are just in the need of a charge.

A lot of times it's not even going to be our members.

Yeah, people traveling.

That's right.

This is a popular corridor between Huntsville and Nashville.

And I think this will be a great stop for folks that are needing to make those drives.

So that's kind of the other thing is why did we settle on that $0.40?

It's slightly below the average for this area.

But what we wanted to make sure was we didn't bring it so low below the average that people that are thinking about putting in EV charging infrastructure that it didn't scare them away.

You know, we don't, we're not here to collect the market on public charging.

We want to support EV charging.

And so if there's another company thinking about building a charging station relatively close by, we want to support that.

So if we were to bring our price down too low, that could really hurt the competition, and we don't want to do that.

I think it's important too for people to remember that we are a nonprofit utility.

So we are not out there trying to make a big profit on this.

We're trying to cover our cost.

And, and, and we need to be able to do that.

We, you know, we can't expect the whole member base that may not support EVs to be paying for these EV chargers.

You know, we've, we've got to cover our cost with the people that are using it, the EV people, to be able to cover those costs and be fair to the members as a whole.

And you know, another thing I think people forget, you know, we pay an electric bill on all these building buildings as well.

We, we have to pay our electric bill just like people in their homes and everything like that.

So that's something to think about as well.

And right along with that, Amy, it's a great point because besides just the energy part of that we also do have to pay a continuing communications piece so that when you tap it'll pay.

And all the cloud, all that worked and, and so some of that cost also goes to pay for some of those features as well.

And the other part is with this grant, anything that we get that's profit, meaning anything that we get that is more than we're paying that has to be reinvested.

So it's not like Amy said, we're not trying to get rich on this.

We're trying to do this in a.

Way that's cost effective and we're regulated by tva.

So we do have someone looking at what we're doing to make sure that we're doing that we're reinvesting that.

And, and that's across the board, not just EV things but even our day to day operations, transformers, you know, poles, everything we do, the money that we take in, I think what is it?

For every dollar we take maybe 10 cents we get to keep.

The rest goes to TVA and we have to you know, operate our everything on a very small margin.

So that's part of being a co op that's owned by our members and nonprofit.

And I know some people as they get those high electric bills, they may not believe that, but that is the truth of what's happening.

That's right, yeah.

And you know when we do these kinds of projects we try to do it.

Obviously a major goal for us is to be a good steward of our members resources.

So when we do a project like this there's a lot of scrutiny to make sure.

Are we being a good steward of our members resources?

Certainly not going out and just doing, doing something because it's, it's interesting or neater, you know, and now we learn a lot from it.

But, but I think there's been some really good ways for us to do this in a cost effective way that brings value to our membership.

That's what we want to do.

Absolutely.

So I have one final question and probably the most important question and probably the question that most of our listeners are going to want to know the answer to.

And that question is when do these go live?

When can people start charging the million Dollar Question.

Million Dollar question.

Yeah, they're live now.

We will just say we have been charging out there today.

So yes, Please stop by 2156 Edward Curd Lane.

They're up, they're running.

I will tell you that if you, it's a great place to stop because if you need a drink we've got A little refrigerator in the lobby.

Feel free, come in, grab you a drink, go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom, grab some coffee.

As long as it's during the working hours, though.

That's right.

It's not going to be open on the weekends.

That's correct, yeah.

Monday through Friday, we have office hours open for you.

So, yeah, we'd welcome you to do that.

And of course, I think there's.

There's WI fi guest.

WI fi access as well, so.

And a little place to sit down.

That's right, yeah.

So I think you'll.

I think it'll be a helpful stop, you know.

You know, usually chick fil a's nearby, a lot of little restaurants nearby, so grab you something to eat.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

While we're in charge.

Absolutely.

Well, I think this has been great.

Definitely want everybody to combine and check that out.

So thanks, Brandon, for always good conversations when we can sit down.

I know we like to have guests, but sometimes I like it when we can just sit down and talk about what's going on with mte.

And thanks to everybody that is listening today.

I'm going to reiterate again.

In case you need to power up, come to these new Kempower DC fast chargers at the MTE Franklin office located at 2156 Edward Curd Lane, just off I65 in Franklin.

And for more information on MTE's Drive EV programs or the EVCAR Club, go to DriveEV.com or email us@evcarclubte.com and until next time, plug in, power up and drive safe.