Can our GRID keep up with DEMAND?

[SolarWizard]

Can our grid handle all the dryers in our houses?

Basically the same load except less ppl will have EVs lol

EVs will consume far more energy in total and they will be added in addition to dryers not instead

 

[Gurule92]

EVs will consume far more energy in total and they will be added in addition to dryers not instead

How many housing developments will get installed? Each one with a new dryer. How many miles does the average person commute? How many hours will each EV be plugged in? How many of those EVs will be at superchargers with batteries? How many of those houses where ppl charge have power wall and solar? How much energy will be offset by green power in the coming years? How many megapacks will be installed?

How many loads of laundry does the average person do? How long do they let their dryer run? What's the efficiency of their dryer?

How long do the utility companies have to prepare? What kind of peak usage rates will they add?

xD

 

[Crissa]

EVs are batteries. And most will charge overnight to be ready for the commute in the morning.




However, during the night isn't when most power is used.

So no, it won't be a problem. And that's before V2G, which can help the grid shift power around. Or parking lots covered with solar charging fleets of employees' cars when the sun shines instead of us wasting that sunshine on heating empty cars.

-Crissa

 

[firsttruck]

EVs are batteries. And most will charge overnight to be ready for the commute in the morning.
......
However, during the night isn't when most power is used.

So no, it won't be a problem. And that's before V2G, which can help the grid shift power around. Or parking lots covered with solar charging fleets of employees' cars when the sun shines instead of us wasting that sunshine on heating empty cars.

-Crissa

Yup, solar panels covering parking lots at job sites and rooftops at job sites would be much more cost effective and then when the workers go home the workers take excess solar energy ( via their vehicles battery) to the worker's home to reduce the home's peak usage (ie duck curve) in late-afternoon/early-evening.

This would help the grid even before grid upgrades were down and these job site solar installations can scale faster then grid upgrades or new power plants.

Government should be supporting job site solar installations more than home solar because it help more taxpayers than just those that own their own home. It helps apartment dwellers and those with lesser economic resources.

 

[cvalue13]

can our GIRD keep up with DEGARLIC?

no one talking about the real issues

hate to see it

 

[CyberGus]

Can our grid handle all the dryers in our houses?

Basically the same load except less ppl will have EVs lol

This can't be right. I've been driving around with my clothes for days, and they're still not dry

 

[BayouCityBob]

This is what the grid is struggling with in California....
Certain vested interests are blaming EVs for the strain but it is simple cooling degree days from our old friend climate change.

 

[PilotPete]

These are silly, click-bait stories to pitch the agenda of equipment sales companies and consultants. If we banned the sale of ICE vehicle in the US tomorrow (won't happen), the total electricity demand increase per year associated with EVs would be about 0.8% per year of additional electricity over the next 20 years as the fleet was replaced. We can handle this. The neighborhood grid is a challenge but will be solved out of extra revenue.

Places like California will have a problem but it will be due not to any technical or economic challenges but to the continued incompetence of the CEC, the four orifices through which electricity must pass, and the regulatory morass that makes energy project builds prolonged, expensive, and unpredictable. (Speaking as someone who has been directly involved in more than 2,000 MW of CA energy projects, both renewable and thermal.)

The Secretary of Energy recently testified in Congress that the current grid is not capable of supporting an overnight switch to EVs. He also said that based on the current rate of adoption, there was sufficient time to upgrade the infrastructure to support the final needs.

That being said, here are my personal caveats;

This was in the midst of a budget discussion that held billions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades. The Secretary was there to support the DOE portion of that budget.

Where I live in CA, the only grid many EV owners need to worry about is the wiring in their home. Daytime charging is done with excess solar capacity and nighttime charging doesn’t matter as there is not much of a demand from 12-10am. As a result, most of CA has time-tiered pricing to support this. The state’s greatest demand is from 2pm-10pm. I’m having solar installed later this year, with batteries, to support 2 EVs as well as my current load (plus a planned pool). So whether the grid can support my charging or not will matter very little to me.

My Wife’s current PHEV supports “Charging in time slot” which is set to start at midnight for her, when our rates are the lowest and the grid is not a factor.

And yes, this state is a mess as a result of politics and BS. The only light at the end of the tunnel is an on-coming train.

 

[PilotPete]

This is what the grid is struggling with in California....
Certain vested interests are blaming EVs for the strain but it is simple cooling degree days from our old friend climate change.

Bob,

I agree California is a mess. I live here and have since birth. The chart you have has an issue with the data. It uses 65 degrees as the magic middle temp. Every day either warms to 65, or cools to 65. In reality, neither is correct. Most homes warm to at least 68 degrees. This results in far more "heating degreeDays". Conversely, it says that a daytime high of 75 degrees would count at TEN degree days (cooling to 65 , 10 degrees times 1 day). A large number of CA days hit the sweet spot of 65-78 degrees, resulting in no heat or AC. And for most homes here, heat is not electric, but either natural gas or propane. The chart doesn't address night time lows, when heat is generally used. And this state is more diverse climate-wise than most countries. Just in the LA Area (within 150 miles) you have Manhattan Beach, where the temp rarely spikes above 80 degrees. You have Arrowhead and Big Bear, which are mountain climates, that rarely spike above 40 during the winter, and are rarely over 75 in the summer. Then you have Palmdale and Palm Springs (High and Low Desert) where 100+ starts in June and can continue through October. You have more cool coastline here than any other state in the CONUS, and large desert areas where we border Nevada and Arizona. Within the CONUS, we have the lowest point (Death Valley) where you often see 120+ temps, and about 100 miles away, the highest point in the CONUS (MtWhitney) where it's summer and in the 40's OR LESS! To create an "average" is statistically meaningless, as the number of locations at that temp represent a single digit number of cities on any given day.

So in this light, the chart and supporting data appears to show a bias toward trying to create a narrative.

I don't discount that the state is in trouble on a myriad of levels and for thousands of reasons. Bag on us for the truth. Trust me, there is plenty of justification for it there. I just have a problem with twisted data.

 

[Sirfun]

As others have said these stories should be seen as entertainment, and are misleading. One major part of the story nobody has brought up is that California has been shutting down power generation for years, and now they're saying we need more infrastructure. I've seen lots of power plants shut down, so where's the truth? Here's a story about some of those shut-downs.

https://blog.ucsusa.org/mark-specht/gas-retirements-california/

BTW, the real problem with all these EVs is our homes mostly have 100 amp service. Upgrading all the homes is going to be a major pain!

 

[cvalue13]

This can't be right. I've been driving around with my clothes for days, and they're still not dry

you’re supposed to be wearing them

 

[Crissa]

As others have said these stories should be seen as entertainment, and are misleading. One major part of the story nobody has brought up is that California has been shutting down power generation for years, and now they're saying we need more infrastructure. I've seen lots of power plants shut down, so where's the truth? Here's a story about some of those shut-downs.

https://blog.ucsusa.org/mark-specht/gas-retirements-california/

BTW, the real problem with all these EVs is our homes mostly have 100 amp service. Upgrading all the homes is going to be a major pain!

We don't need old power plants. They have a shelf life, and new renewable sources are coming on line.

And we don't need to upgrade houses to charge EVs. The vast majority of miles can be taken care of on granny cables, let alone low power level 2 installations. It's not like people are using their ovens and driers all night.

-Crissa

 

[Greshnab]

in all honesty a lot of the solution long term isn't on the grid it is on the roof IMHO

 

[Ehninger1212]

This argument has been debated ad nauseum. Its my belief that regardless of what we do, the grid is going to require more energy and improvement reliability. We as a society need to pivot towards cleaner more efficient sources of production and consumption of that energy whenever we can.

Will EV's put some extra strain on the grid? sure. But I know for a fact, down here in Houston, we have oil and gas refineries that have their own powerplants. Just chew on that for a moment.

 

[Greshnab]

The residential sector accounts for about 21% of total U.S. energy consumption.
according to the department of energy...

NREL has another report conservatively estimating that rooftop solar alone could generate 34% of all U.S. electricity requirements

I will NOT argue the grid needs to be improved do NOT confuse this with that... however if we as a nation want to collect the low hanging fruit.. seems like the best thing we can do is maximize use of rooftop solar... that will remove all homes and their associated BEV transport load from the grid.

It will be easier to reduce use of the grid by 10% via rooftop solar than it will be to ADD 10% capacity!