Let’s put this into perspective of a consumer. I installed Level 2 charger this year:
- Most people don’t actually need Level 2: it’s a convenience.
- I also spent less than $200 for adapters and cable to use pretty much any type of outlet I may found, and most or all would be sufficient
- The new circuit is the same size as my stove circuit. This is not as huge or expansive as people imagine
- Charging my EV use far less electricity than my air conditioner
I’m getting really tired of all the imaginary what-about-ism from ev-sceptics.
It’s a total non-issue for most countries. The daily difference between peak hours and non-peak hours is much larger than what could even potentially be used for charging EVs.
The industrial electric consumption is much much larger than what is required for personal transportation.
Last year, in Denmark, a concrete factory switched from using one electric oven to using a more efficient electric oven. They obviously did this to save money and lowering their environmental impact, but… this single switch in one single factory saved more electricity than is required to charge every single EV in the entire country.
Come on… please, people, just have a look at the scale of things before starting another baseless fearmongering rant against having to eventually drive electric…
I as pro-EV as the best of them. A cradle to grave emissions drop of 40% is a great step forward on reducing transport emissions (public transport and active transportation are a whole other aspect of this we’ll avoid here). However, characterizing the energy gap for EV charging as a non-issue is disingenuous.
You’ve correctly pointed out that peak hours are when the grid is most strained and vulnerable. Well, if most everyone who drives to work starts charging their EV when they get home from work, that is at the highest peak of the day: around 5-7pm. It’s the addition to the peak curve that’s the real concern. In most places, that means triggering on fossil fuel burning facilities to meet that peak demand. It also means increased peak loads on the transmission infrastructure that could overwhelm it.
That being said, there are some simple solutions: e.g. charge EVs on off-peak hours, smoothing out the demand on the grid. Where I live there is already an incentive to charge overnight in the form of ultra low overnight rates. I’m sure we’ll find the solutions, but please don’t pretend it’s not a problem.
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Are people really that dumb that they willingly pay peak pricing to charge their EV? Or are significant numbers of people in CA not on TOU rates? Everything I’ve seen suggest TOU rates are quite effective in getting users to shift certain loads (and EVs are easily shiftable).
People don’t like TOU metering because they’re afraid of getting price gouged. I was too, who can trust a corporation not to take advantage? But now with an EV, I have an obvious use case where it would give me huge benefit. I’m ready to switch over
I’ll have to replace my hvac in the next couple years and am mostly annoyed at the lack of storage heating for heat pumps. My parents had that for electric heating and it worked great. Instead of a baseboard strip, every room had something about the size of a standard radiator - it absorbed heat overnight when rates were low and you just controlled a fan to adjust heat throughout the day. Where are those for heat pump head units?
I wouldn’t generalize that people “don’t like TOU”. People understand that energy costs more during peak periods and are generally receptive to these market forces. People are used to driving around to save $0.02/gallon on gas, they can run their dishwasher later in the evening and adjust their thermostat slightly to save money. Plus obviously off peak EV charging.
As to the heat pump situation, you’re describing an air to water heat pump and a large buffer tank. You heat the tank off peak and it distributes the water throughout the day. You can then optimize to price, but the equation is complicated because the COP varies dramatically with outdoor temperature. These systems just aren’t that common in the US though, where forced air or ductless heads are dominant, but people absolutely replace boilers with heat pump driven hot water systems. We should see more options (e.g. R290 monoblocs) in the US at some point, hopefully.
This kind of thing always seems overblown to me. Can’t electric companies, you know, upgrade their gear?
Sure, if you waved a magic wand and suddenly every ICE car was a plug-in EV, you’d have widespread blackouts.
There is no magic wand. People are adopting EVs gradually which means that power companies can stay ahead of the adoption rate and upgrade capacity as needed.
