Without Smart Charging For EVs The Power Grid Will Collapse

Here’s the thing: it may seem like I’m against EVs, but, actually no. I’ve never been a fan of the pollutants, which doesn’t include CO2, from the use of fossil fuels. Remember how clean the air was during lockdown in 2020? It was wonderful. No smell of exhaust. No smog. But, the problem here, besides EVs being unaffordable to the middle and working classes, is that the power grid can’t handle them

Smart charging may be key to saving power grid in world of EVs

As electric vehicle (EV) sales rise, the big question for power grid operators, charging companies and governments is how to run tens of millions of vehicles without crashing local networks or spending billions on grid upgrades.

The answer: smart charging.

Simply put, smart charging software allows EV owners to plug in during expensive peak hours, without the vehicle drawing power until cheap off-peak hours. This eases strain on the electric grid, makes better use of renewable energy and saves drivers money.

Without it, millions of EV owners plugging in after work – auditing firm EY estimates Europe will have 65 million EVs by 2030 and 130 million by 2035 – could overload local grids, causing blackouts.

“The shift to electric will be nigh on impossible without smart charging,” Chris Pateman-Jones, CEO of British EV charger company Connected Kerb, told Reuters while demonstrating a pilot project on public chargers in Hackney, a London borough.

Well, good thing the Powers That Be want to force everyone into an EV, right? While getting rid of coal and natural gas, and being dead set against nuclear. This should end well.

BTW, here’s something that isn’t being discussed: what about the gas tax? There’s a lot of money coming into the local, state, and federal coffers to pay for all types of road services, right? That dries up with EVs. So, time to implement another tax, which would blow the whole “it’s cheaper to charge and EV than fill a gas vehicle” argument away. They’ll either have to do a road miles tax or raise property taxes. Maybe registration fees? Or purchase fees? Or all of the above?

Joe helping out his upper middle class and rich donors, because this sure doesn’t help the middle and working classes. BTW, when’s Joe going to trade in the limo for an EV?

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11 Responses to “Without Smart Charging For EVs The Power Grid Will Collapse”

  1. Hairy says:

    Global oil prices are skyrocketing! Te price for extraction and refining has not significantly changed. Profits are record breaking. Is this “inflation” ? Or price gouging? Is the Ukraine situation netting huge profits for Russia Saudi Arabia Iran Iraq Venezuala just a ploy to drive up profits?wor Renewable prices keep going down, they are lower than even new nuke or new natural gas powered plants
    Weforum.org
    World economic forum
    July 5 2021
    “Renewables world’s cheapest electricity in 2020”
    And storage from both chemical and mechanical batteries is improving steadily

    • L.G.Brandon!, L.G.Brandon! says:

      Ho-Hum Hairy. Same old shit. Same old misinformation. Same old economic and business ignorance. You and dOwd can be enlightened 100 times and on the 101st repeat the same bolderdash. It’s really amazing that any single group of people, leftists, could continuously respond with the same crap time after time never stopping once to consider they may be wrong.

      let’s go Brandon, fuck up our economy with a one-size-fits-all energy policy like you did with a one-size-fits-all medical policy.

  2. Downwind of Seattle says:

    And who decides when “peak hours” are? Oh yeah, the same people who want to control everyone’s ability to go anyplace. If they can set the “peak hours” they can also shut it down preventing a charge at all.

  3. Dana says:

    Our distinguished host quoted:

    Simply put, smart charging software allows EV owners to plug in during expensive peak hours, without the vehicle drawing power until cheap off-peak hours. This eases strain on the electric grid, makes better use of renewable energy and saves drivers money.

    Except, of course, off-peak hours occur at night, at which time solar panels don’t work. This means faster drain and cycling of the electric storage media at the solar power plants.

    BTW, here’s something that isn’t being discussed: what about the gas tax? There’s a lot of money coming into the local, state, and federal coffers to pay for all types of road services, right? That dries up with EVs. So, time to implement another tax, which would blow the whole “it’s cheaper to charge and EV than fill a gas vehicle” argument away. They’ll either have to do a road miles tax or raise property taxes. Maybe registration fees? Or purchase fees? Or all of the above?

    The government would prefer a mileage tax, generated by a GPS tracker, so the government would always be able to track your every movement.

    Of course, someone would figure out a way to bypass the system, or rig it so that the vehicle owner could quickly unmount it, and use it for maybe a third of his actual driving.

  4. Elwood P. Dowd says:

    Does Teach expect the electrical grid (which Republicans oppose updating) to stay the same as now? Think of all the jobs for upgrading the electrical grid. Bet Texas wishes the electrical grid was modernized and that they could buy electricity from other states.

    How much does a 2022 gas F150 cost these days? It’s one of the most popular vehicles in the US.

    • Dana says:

      Someone from the Show Me State wrote:

      Does Teach expect the electrical grid (which Republicans oppose updating) to stay the same as now?

      Could you show me where Republicans oppose updating the electrical grid?

      Now, some of us, including me, would oppose having government update the electrical grid, since the grid is actually the work of private utilities, but that isn’t what you said.

    • Unkle C says:

      Elwood, it wasn’t the Texas grid that was the problem in Feb2021, primarily it was an over reliance on ‘renewable energy sources’ and federal regulators. Wind mills iced up, heavy overcast decreased solar panel output, and federal regulators prohibited bringing reserve coal plants on line. This is an extremely complex issue generally beyond simplistic answers.
      A new Ford F-150 bases(list) at about $30k up to $40k depending on configuration, before options, a blinged out Shelby Raptor F-150 will probably hit you about $125k.

      • Elwood P. Dowd says:

        Unkle C: This is an extremely complex issue generally beyond simplistic answers

        but then a simplistic answer is proposed… it was an over reliance on renewable energy sources and federal regulators

        Sure… that’s from the con playbook… federal regulators and windmills!!

        Texas has its own

        electrical grid

        , run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Texas has chosen not to be part of the larger US grids, i.e., the Western US and Eastern US grids. 80% of Texas’ electricity comes from non-renewable resources like coal, gas and nuclear. When the largely unprecedented cold snap hit Texas, the state was unprepared for natural gas plant shutdowns (which were not ‘winterized’, and some were shut down for maintenance).

        So windmills weren’t the issue, natural gas plants were. But what did federal regulators have to do with the Texas problems? Texas has its own grid.

        The predecessor for ERCOT was formed in the 1930s, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Power Act, which charged the Federal Power Commission with regulating interstate electricity sales.

        “Utilities in Texas were smart and made an agreement that no one was going to extend power outside of Texas,” Donna Nelson, former chair of the state Public Utility Commission, which oversees ERCOT.

        “By eschewing transmission across state lines, the Texas utilities retained freedom. This policy of isolation avoided regulation by the newly created Federal Power Commission, whose jurisdiction was limited to utilities operating in interstate commerce,” from the book The Second Battle of the Alamo: The Midnight Connection.

        The $29,999 F-150 has cloth seats, vinyl floors, manual door locks, no cruise, V6, steel wheels, manual windows, single bench seat, 2W drive … you get the idea. Off the lot for $31,185. We’re unlikely to see many of these on the road. Most F-150s on the road today are not work trucks but rather image trucks or boat-pulling trucks. A 4-door, 4×4 Lariat is pushing $60K.

        • Unkle C says:

          A little background, I’ve lived and subscribed to local utilities in several states. Texas does have some issues with utilities, Ercot is not a ‘Public Service Commission’ as one finds in many states. The locales that seem to have good service delivery usually have ‘regulated utilities’ and a PSC to handle the regulation in state. A model we studied in college in the 60’s and 70’s. On the electric front, I’ll point out Duke Energy, Florida Power, Minnesota Power, and Georgia Power as utilities that have done a serviceable job delivering electricity. Gas has been more of a mixed bag. The worst I’ve experienced has been where local municipalities were providing more than water and sewer service. Your mileage may vary.
          The overall issue is that the nation is not producing enough power to go total electric. I am not opposed to alternative sources of power. I do believe in having redundant capacity 24 / 7 / 365. To simply add EV’s as replacement for gas and diesel vehicles will place an enormous additional load on the system. For a simple exercise, take a 2400 home subdivision, add an additional 50 amps of electric service to charge the Tesla in each garage and see what that gives you. Then multiply by the number of subdivisions, throw in some transmission losses and we begin talking about needing some juice. Now add electric heat and cooking and continue the extrapolations.
          On the pickup issue, I’ve made enough fleet purchases to know what a ‘base’ vehicle is. The ‘drive-out’ price is base plus you adding what options you want and you pay for it. I haven’t personally owned a pickup in 20 years and would only buy an antique if I were to buy one at this point. Where I live pickups are everywhere and range from work trucks to the Shelby Raptors.

  5. captainfish says:

    Don’t worry.. once you get your EV vehicle charged up after 6-10 hours, the state will also be allowed to pull that energy back out of your vehicle to make up for missing grid power during those peak times. Thus, you’ll have to pay twice, or more, to recharge your vehicle. In other words, that electricity you bought to charge your EV, isn’t yours.

    • CarolAnn says:

      “In other words, that electricity you bought to charge your EV, isn’t yours.”

      Not to worry captainfish, under leftist rule neither is the EV truck.

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