Bandera Electric Cooperative recently celebrated the installation of its first fast DC EV charger. Located at the BEC Comfort office, 739 Front St., the newly installed charger can charge electric vehicles at an expedited rate, information from BEC stated.
“We are happy to finally have the two chargers in place,” said Thilo Janssen, BEC manager of engineering. “The fast charger will boost the technology for Comfort and enable modern cars to charge up in the shortest time.”
Currently, the DC charger is the only one of its kind located between San Antonio and Kerrville that is open to the public. Payments can be made with a credit card or select cash app. The charging station is equipped with two different cables to accommodate different vehicles. Tesla users will need an adaptor to make their port compatible.
In addition to the DC fast charger, a Level 2 charger was installed only a few parking spaces away. To set a baseline, a Level 2 charger is 15.4KW and takes just under two hours to obtain about 100 miles. The new DC fast charger is 50 KW and takes 30 minutes to gain the same amount of miles, BEC’s information stated.
“The DC charger will give customers many more miles per minute than the Level 2,” said Rohit Upadhya, technology applications engineer and project manager for the new Comfort charging station. “You have to be in the area for several hours to be able to get to your next location for a Level 2 charger, but with the DC charger, you can plug in and run to get a coffee across the street or a brownie from High Street Café and then be ready to get back on the road.”
BEC received a grant from Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to install five Level 2 chargers in its service area. Comfort is the third location to receive a Level 2 charger with the grant funds. Presently, BEC has two other Level 2 chargers, one located in Bandera behind the Methodist church and the other in Leakey at TXN Bank. The fourth charger is currently scheduled to be installed in Medina.
The installation of both the Level 2 and DC fast charger provides opportunities to expand tourism in the Hill Country, BEC stated.
