Supercharger - Moose Jaw, SK

So we now have 2 big gaps, one left of Moose Jaw and the other to the right

Can't wait to do the TCH coast to coast.

This looks a little suspicious. It doesn't look like a Supercharger. There are too many big conduits coming out from what would appear to be Supercharger Stalls. Also, why does the big "transformer" have a manhole cover in it?

I might be wrong.

Whatever, if this location actually does have Supercharger construction, it has the folks in North Dakota and western Minnesota excited. If they build out the Trans-Canada Highway, they have a chance of building out I-94 in the U.S., which has been long promised. North Dakota is the only state in the U.S. without any DC fast charging.

BobC said:

This looks a little suspicious. It doesn't look like a Supercharger. There are too many big conduits coming out from what would appear to be Supercharger Stalls. Also, why does the big "transformer" have a manhole cover in it?

I might be wrong.

Whatever, if this location actually does have Supercharger construction, it has the folks in North Dakota and western Minnesota excited. If they build out the Trans-Canada Highway, they have a chance of building out I-94 in the U.S., which has been long promised. North Dakota is the only state in the U.S. without any DC fast charging.

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I agree that there are differences from other Supercharger sites, but I don't see anything that contradicts a Supercharger install. We are about to see the end of V2 chargers and the beginning of V3. We don't know what this site will have.
I too was puzzled why the transformer was there first; usually it is the second last thing to be installed on site. Perhaps it is in use already for something else (split use by design). But it is a power transformer. With manhole access. Who knows what they do in Moose Jaw. Saskatchewan is a strange place.

We need more pix as the build progresses.

BobC said:

This looks a little suspicious. It doesn't look like a Supercharger. There are too many big conduits coming out from what would appear to be Supercharger Stalls. Also, why does the big "transformer" have a manhole cover in it?

I might be wrong.

Whatever, if this location actually does have Supercharger construction, it has the folks in North Dakota and western Minnesota excited. If they build out the Trans-Canada Highway, they have a chance of building out I-94 in the U.S., which has been long promised. North Dakota is the only state in the U.S. without any DC fast charging.

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It still looks very consistent with supercharger builds. The utility transformer is sitting on top of a high voltage electrical vault, which is like an industrial sized junction box. At home you'd have it behind your dry wall, here it'll be underground. But it still needs to allow access to the connections which are made inside, hence the manhole cover.

The forms they're working on, which you think are for the "supercharger stalls" as you move down the line from the transformer aren't for the charging posts. It's a bit hard to tell from the distance/angle in the video portion but in the static shots at the end, it's much clearer that they are actually well back from the parking surface. They're going to be where the supercharger cabinets are installed, not the charging posts. Instead of placing the cabinets all on a single larger pad, they're being space out linearly in this install. Probably due to the limited available area along that strip. This is a less usual layout for superchargers but has still been seen at multiple other locations. Expecting those to be the bases for the charging posts, it's easy to see why you'd think that the conduit looked wrong. But with the understanding that they're actually for the cabinets, with the posts placed closer to the actual parking lot surface, things go back to looking normal. The bases for the posts aren't in yet, but you can see the single conduits that will deliver the electricity to the posts, running from the future cabinet location to the edge of the lot. Etc.

mociaf9 said:

It still looks very consistent with supercharger builds. The utility transformer is sitting on top of a high voltage electrical vault, which is like an industrial sized junction box. At home you'd have it behind your dry wall, here it'll be underground. But it still needs to allow access to the connections which are made inside, hence the manhole cover.

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Thanks for the explanation! It makes sense now. I was wondering if those were the cabinets instead of the supercharger stalls. This is a different layout than Superchargers I've visited in the past.

Posted on the Saskatchewan Electric Vehicle Association Facebook and Twitter page

1.21 Jiggawatts said:

Posted on the Saskatchewan Electric Vehicle Association Facebook and Twitter page

View attachment 419848
View attachment 419852

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This looks awfully suspicious, (the pipes) could it be a V3 station? They are still installing V2 stations, and just starting to roll out V3.

Also, it looks like there are 5 stalls and maybe an additional pull in stall that's out of frame.

Poobearcretu said:

This looks awfully suspicious, (the pipes) could it be a V3 station? They are still installing V2 stations, and just starting to roll out V3.

Also, it looks like there are 5 stalls and maybe an additional pull in stall that's out of frame.

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Total of six stations has been confirmed. 5 standard and one pull in stall. The crew is there working again today

This is borderline orgasmic news

Thank you all for the sleuthing.

1.21 Jiggawatts said:

Total of six stations has been confirmed. 5 standard and one pull in stall. The crew is there working again today

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The SC’s are finally making the trek west with 3 permits for the NW part of the TCH in Ontario. I plan on taking a trip to the east coast (several opening out there) and later going out west. I’m still amazed with the what the early adapters were doing in 2012-13 to travel around.

Indeed.

Having traveled the American South in 2014, in a 60S, I can say Canada is more advanced for level 2 charging. Sure, you have to allow for only two charges/day, but you also get to really see the country you are traveling through. Having now made several cross-country trips since then, I find I only try for about 500 miles/day.

All that said, this does seem to be the start of making this practical for those in a hurry - yeahhhhhhh!

CraigW said:

Having traveled the American South in 2014, in a 60S, I can say Canada is more advanced for level 2 charging. Sure, you have to allow for only two charges/day, but you also get to really see the country you are traveling through. Having now made several cross-country trips since then, I find I only try for about 500 miles/day.

All that said, this does seem to be the start of making this practical for those in a hurry - yeahhhhhhh!

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Are you really making an assessment of American L2 charging stations based on an experience you had in 2014? You don't think things might have changed slightly since then?

Mr. PlugShare said:

Creds to @InternetDude @1.21 Jiggawatts for finding a new Supercharger down in Moose Jaw! First Supercharger in the Prairies to break ground. I’ve just added this on supercharge.info and will link the pin here.

Here is a link to the video of the finding:

It will be located at The Civic Centre Plaza in Moose Jaw at
1251 Main St N, Moose Jaw SK S6H 6M3, Canada.

Awesome news!!!

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Coolio. Going to have to stop in next week even though it is sort of out of the way, and of course I'll not be taking on charge. It has been a very, very long time since I was in Moot Nayah. The McDonald's was on the other side of Main Street, near Town & Country Mall, and that car would have been parked next to a hockey rink then.

Interesting that Tesla is willing to build it as an island. Is Musk's relative's ranch that close? Or are they just committing to going hard this summer on the other locations needed to link it in either East or West?

DoctorVenkman said:

Are you really making an assessment of American L2 charging stations based on an experience you had in 2014? You don't think things might have changed slightly since then?

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I agree with @CraigW. In some ways, Canada in 2014 is/was farther ahead in the L2 world than the US. There was almost full L2 support across the country then. Canada has always been more supportive of EVs than the US.

Progress in Moose Jaw has come to a halt. The crews are gone, it would be nice to know which city they moved on to. It looks like nothing will be happening here until hardware shows up.

XHabjab said:

I agree with @CraigW. In some ways, Canada in 2014 is/was farther ahead in the L2 world than the US. There was almost full L2 support across the country then. Canada has always been more supportive of EVs than the US.

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I don't see it. I see governments all across the country going all in to support oil, and being hostile to EVs. Heck, the federal government had to be dragged and screaming to put a greenwashing to their big oil venture.

S'toon said:

I don't see it. I see governments all across the country going all in to support oil, and being hostile to EVs. Heck, the federal government had to be dragged and screaming to put a greenwashing to their big oil venture.

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He was making a comparative statement while you are just complaining that Canada should be doing more. I think we can all agree that we'd like to see all governments doing more to support EV infrastructure.

But as to the initial comment about L2 charging being more reliable in Canada than the US, I would agree with the OP. Caveat being that I don't have a ton of experience using L2s in the US because it's easier to get around there with superchargers than it is in Canada. The L2 infrastructure in Canada is definitely impressive considering the relatively small population and even smaller amount of EV adoption. It's pretty clear that the government has played a role in a high percentage of those installations. Whereas in the US, the government has done very little to support any type of EV charging infrastructure, especially considering the much larger population and much larger number of EVs on the road.

Moose Jaw Supercharger update courtesy of @InternetDude