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I'm less worried about grid collapse and more worried about localized hot spots leading to localized failures. What happens when everyone in my neighborhood com

I'm less worried about grid collapse and more worried about localized hot spots leading to localized failures. What happens when everyone in my neighborhood comes home and plugs in two Teslas? Looking at the markings on the transformers, I don't believe we'd operate through that. Luckily that doesn't seem catastrophically difficult to fix in a place with a good utility company. But we're on PG&E, so it'll probably rust out and catch fire before it gets an upgrade. Maybe UK providers are better.

brianwawok 6y ago
Tesla generally doesn’t start to charge until like midnight (you can adjust it). If you can handle peak noon AC load, you can definitely handle middle of the night BEV charge load. It does hurt some generation strategies such as solar, but it plays nice with Vaseline generation.
nicoburns 6y ago
Presumably this would be solved with time-based energy pricing to incentivise people to use electricity at times with lower load (which is often at night: perfect for EVs)
- zbrozek 6y ago
  Yeah, but oftentimes loads (e.g., A/C or cooking) are not shiftable. And since there's no "EPA drive cycle" for TOU pricing or marketing standards, everybody quotes the lowest-possible rates that aren't representative of your marginal cost to consume. It's really anti-consumer. Imagine if everything adopted this model. Gas at the pump changes price mid fill-up. You'd fret that you'd be gouged for a million dollar gallon in the moment that you glance away. Or if there were TOU in addition to data caps on your internet connection - streaming a movie might be more expensive than you bargained. So yes, in principle I agree that pricing everything to the most-granular and timely degree is economically correct, but it's also absolutely exhausting as a consumer. There's only so much cognitive burden to be tolerated. At some point apathy takes over.

brianwawok 6y ago

Tesla generally doesn’t start to charge until like midnight (you can adjust it). If you can handle peak noon AC load, you can definitely handle middle of the night BEV charge load. It does hurt some generation strategies such as solar, but it plays nice with Vaseline generation.

nicoburns 6y ago

Presumably this would be solved with time-based energy pricing to incentivise people to use electricity at times with lower load (which is often at night: perfect for EVs)

zbrozek 6y ago
Yeah, but oftentimes loads (e.g., A/C or cooking) are not shiftable. And since there's no "EPA drive cycle" for TOU pricing or marketing standards, everybody quotes the lowest-possible rates that aren't representative of your marginal cost to consume. It's really anti-consumer. Imagine if everything adopted this model. Gas at the pump changes price mid fill-up. You'd fret that you'd be gouged for a million dollar gallon in the moment that you glance away. Or if there were TOU in addition to data caps on your internet connection - streaming a movie might be more expensive than you bargained. So yes, in principle I agree that pricing everything to the most-granular and timely degree is economically correct, but it's also absolutely exhausting as a consumer. There's only so much cognitive burden to be tolerated. At some point apathy takes over.