2 ms·

Increase the capacity of the entire grid in only 14 years? 50% is one hell of an increase!

by ChrisRR 8y ago

clort 8y ago
The 50% increase is not required immediately. Only new cars would be required to be electric. Modern car longevity is about 10-20 years (Wikipedia suggests 200,000 miles in the USA) so full capacity might not be needed for 20-30 years.
Tade0 8y ago
Less than 3% each year. Also electricity consumption in the UK has fallen 18.5% since its peak in 2005, so a good part of the capacity is already there. Given that has been consistently falling at a rate of 1.5%/yr there may not be any new capacity required at all. EDIT: year of "peak electricity"
PuffinBlue 8y ago
This is a borderline ridiculous comment. You don't need to increase the capacity of the grid by 50% in 14 years. The legislation is to stop the sale of ICE cars, not get Harry Potter in to transmogrify all old ICE into BEV the millisecond the law is enacted. You don't even need to increase the grid at all from it's current capacity if you charge the cars overnight or outside the peak daily duck curves, probably for the first 5 years of the legislation being enacted, as the numbers of BEV's around wouldn't exceed the generating capacity. So even if we didn't change the grid or increase generating capacity in any way whatsoever just some simple time management would be enough maintain BEV's and grid stability. To be clear - you only have to make sure that the peak power draw on the grid doesn't increase. UK has about 55GW of generating capacity and uses about 25GW overnight and 35GW during the main part of the day at this time of year, a time of year that is higher use than the summer so we're talking worse case. That's 20-30GW of capacity to fit in some charging. And that's without having any increases over the next 14 years which is obviously ridiculous!

2 ms·

Increase the capacity of the entire grid in only 14 years? 50% is one hell of an increase!

by ChrisRR 8y ago

Increase the capacity of the entire grid in only 14 years? 50% is one hell of an increase!

clort 8y ago
The 50% increase is not required immediately. Only new cars would be required to be electric. Modern car longevity is about 10-20 years (Wikipedia suggests 200,000 miles in the USA) so full capacity might not be needed for 20-30 years.
Tade0 8y ago
Less than 3% each year. Also electricity consumption in the UK has fallen 18.5% since its peak in 2005, so a good part of the capacity is already there. Given that has been consistently falling at a rate of 1.5%/yr there may not be any new capacity required at all. EDIT: year of "peak electricity"
PuffinBlue 8y ago
This is a borderline ridiculous comment. You don't need to increase the capacity of the grid by 50% in 14 years. The legislation is to stop the sale of ICE cars, not get Harry Potter in to transmogrify all old ICE into BEV the millisecond the law is enacted. You don't even need to increase the grid at all from it's current capacity if you charge the cars overnight or outside the peak daily duck curves, probably for the first 5 years of the legislation being enacted, as the numbers of BEV's around wouldn't exceed the generating capacity. So even if we didn't change the grid or increase generating capacity in any way whatsoever just some simple time management would be enough maintain BEV's and grid stability. To be clear - you only have to make sure that the peak power draw on the grid doesn't increase. UK has about 55GW of generating capacity and uses about 25GW overnight and 35GW during the main part of the day at this time of year, a time of year that is higher use than the summer so we're talking worse case. That's 20-30GW of capacity to fit in some charging. And that's without having any increases over the next 14 years which is obviously ridiculous!