Essay by Eric Worrall
“Our grid is not coping at all right now”: According to Origin Energy, a major Australian supplier, unless smart chargers are used to shift EV charging off peak times, The grid will struggle to cope with people plugging in their cars after work.
Electric vehicles can significantly increase grid demand, trials underway to change energy usage behavior
Via Kym Agius
A new test shows that electric cars can increase demand on the grid during evening peaks by at least 30% unless households adopt smart charging.
Main attractions:
- A test with 150 electric car users revealed their potential impact on the grid’s peaks in the evening.
- Demand can increase from 30 to 100%
- Work is underway to understand what upgrades may be needed for the power grid
Origin Energy has partnered with the Australian Renewable Energy Authority (ARENA) to explore ways to change the behavior of electric car owners before they are widely adopted in Australia.
Mr. Chau Le, General Director of Origin’s e-mobile segment, said: the net will fight once electric cars become more popular.
“At the moment, our grid is not responding at all,” she speaks.
“If we were to add 30% more peak load to the grid during periods of high prices and network constraints, this would require significant investment to increase capacity.”
…
The results show that without interference, 30% of the charging is done during the evening peak, from 3pm to 9pm.
…
What a mess – welcome to our low energy, limited energy future. If only our energy and climate ministers weren’t so anti-nuclear. A carbon-free nuclear power grid, as they have in Francethere should be no problem charging the EV at any time of the day or night – no need to allocate power if you have nuclear power.
Imagine the impact on EV owners.
If I own an EV, I’ll want to plug it in as soon as I get home, so there’s going to be a lot of fees if I need to take an unscheduled trip late at night. And I want to be in charge a lot in the morning, to go to work. Then plug it in at work, get a good charger during solar peak times, then go back to the charger at home.
If any of these charge intervals were to be removed or degraded, it would cause significant inconvenience to EV owners. If you can’t join as soon as you get home and live a few miles from town, you’re likely to get worried if one of the kids gets sick at night or if a friend invites you out. , or you need to go to the supermarket unexpectedly. Even worse if your car doesn’t charge overnight, as low winds and cold weather drain all available electricity from the grid.
Electric cars almost make sense, if you ignore the frequent need for a long road trip, the high cost and The sad trend of self-igniting electric cars. But only if you can conveniently charge the EV. Otherwise EVs are even more of a joke than they are right now.
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