Foto: MOON POWER
Mario Specht specializes in installing charging stations and wall boxes of all kinds. In the current issue of eMove360° magazine, the electrician provides insight into his varied daily routine and shows how a DC charging station is installed at the Gersthofen used car center.
What electric car drivers usually don’t think about is part of the daily business for electrician Mario Specht from MOON POWER Germany: namely, how to get a DC charging station that is over two meters high and weighs around 700 kilograms into place. Installing a fast charger for electric vehicles is more challenging than it appears at first glance and requires technical expertise, experience, and patience. The 50-year-old electrician has been working for the innovative provider of sustainable energy solutions since the end of 2022 and is responsible for installing wall boxes and charging stations throughout Germany.
The installation requires teamwork: At 10:00 a.m., Mario Specht rolls up to the Gersthofen Used Car Center (GWZ) with a forklift. On the fork is a large package containing a DC charging station, which will be available to electric car drivers in the GWZ parking lot. “Fast chargers like this are always set up as a team – given the size and weight, I don’t stand a chance on my own,” says Specht before carefully placing the package on the ground. Together with MOON POWER service technician Eugen Makover, he then unpacks it and prepares the charging station, a POWER Charger 300, for installation. “We already spent a few hours yesterday getting everything ready. This included, for example, exposing the connections on the base where the charging station will later stand. The conditions here in the open parking lot are ideal – the base is freely accessible and not restricted by walls. We can work really well here,” explains Specht as he loosens the terminals of the connection cables inside the DC charging station.
Just like heart surgery, this job requires precision: without tools such as a forklift truck, which can be rented on site if necessary, it would be impossible to install the fast charger. By 10:31 a.m., the DC charging station, manufactured by Alpitronic, is already hanging on the fork, and Mario Specht slowly positions the approximately 700-kilogram charging station above the base. His colleague makes sure that the unit, which costs around 60,000 euros, is positioned correctly. Specht adds: “This is a high-end device that is characterized by high efficiency and durability.” The trained electrician and his team have already installed around 50 such charging stations in Germany. He slowly lowers the charging station and by 10:44 a.m. it is already in place. “Now it gets exciting. Connecting the terminals on the base to the device requires a delicate touch – almost like performing heart surgery,” jokes Specht. “Sometimes a little patience is needed when cables and connections have to be adjusted. It can be challenging, but in the end we always overcome every difficulty.” Inside the charging station are four so-called power stacks, each with an output of 75 kW, weighing around 100 kilograms each and forming the central unit of the fast charger. This modular concept makes the station future-proof and flexibly expandable. The POWER Charger 300 with two CCS2 charging points (Combined Charging System) has a maximum charging capacity of 300 kW each. In addition, the wide voltage range from 150 to 1,000 volts allows both 400 V and 800 V vehicles to be charged.
Mario Specht works with passion: With the front of the charging station open, Specht now begins to connect the device’s terminals to the cables protruding from the base. “It’s all about positioning the conductors correctly and installing them properly. This makes my electrician’s heart beat faster, because it’s precisely these kinds of tasks that fascinate me,” says Specht. Born in Saxony and now living in Munich, he has all the qualifications required to work with high-voltage systems and worked with photovoltaic systems before joining MOON POWER Germany. “I’ve been doing this job for more than 30 years and can’t imagine anything better – for me, it’s my dream job.” Specht is responsible for all installations of wall boxes and charging stations in Germany for MOON POWER, and he travels fully electrically. “I have a VW ID. BUZZ that accompanies me in my daily work. For us as a company that promotes sustainable mobility, this is a matter of course, and for me as an employee, electric travel means an enormous gain in comfort,” reports the electrician. “Of course, it depends on the right planning of the trips, but I can use the charging stops, for example, to do important tasks on the PC and work efficiently.”
One day passes until the charging station is installed: At 11:15 a.m. in the parking lot in Gersthofen, the new MOON POWER fast charger is securely bolted to the base and mechanically connected. The two technicians are satisfied: “Eugen and I are a well-coordinated team—we work well together on the construction site, which makes the work particularly enjoyable,” says Specht. “Sometimes we need a little more time to connect the device. It depends on the location, the cabling, and the infrastructure, but today everything worked perfectly.” Now Specht and Makover install the cable management system, i.e., the bracket for the cables at the top of the charging station. Finally, they carefully check once again that all screws and connections are secure. It is 12:33 p.m. when the MOON POWER employees begin to tidy up the construction site and pack up their tools. “We were very quick with the installation today. Setting up a charging station takes about four to five hours on average. Added to that is the preparation, which takes about the same amount of time. We generally expect it to take a full working day to install the fast charger,“ says Mario Specht. ”Now all that’s missing is the power connection. Then we can finally set up the device, connect it to our backend, and check that everything is working properly.” At 1:31 p.m., Mario Specht and Eugen Makover have finished their work on site and are heading home.
Who is behind MOON Power? MOON POWER Deutschland GmbH is a brand of Porsche Holding GmbH. Porsche Holding, headquartered in Salzburg, is an internationally active company covering the business areas of wholesale and retail trade with Volkswagen AG brands, financial services, and IT system development. MOON POWER and MOON POWER Deutschland distribute cross-brand solutions for charging infrastructure and energy management. The goal is to promote battery-based electric mobility and shape a sustainable future with projects of all sizes tailored specifically to customers. www.moon-power.de
This article is published in the current eMove360° Magazine. Download the PDF for free or order a print version.
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Google Maps. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information
