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Peak energy demand is 4-9pm when people arrive home from work in the evening, turn on HVAC, start cooking, watch tv, and basically use power. That is after sol

Peak energy demand is 4-9pm when people arrive home from work in the evening, turn on HVAC, start cooking, watch tv, and basically use power. That is after solar production tapers off, so solar without batteries doesn't help the grid. Most EVs and many chargers can be programmed to charge at set times. So you set your EV to charge after midnight when demand is lowest. This will actually help the grid because today power companies have to throttle up and down production to meet peak demand then overnight lull. By charging EVs at night it will allow production to remain pretty consistent. Another factor no one seems to get is that people aren't going to charge nightly. This is like making the argument that our gasoline grid isn't capable of refueling every car simultaneously.

ogre_codes 6y ago
I think there is a lot more flex in EV charging than people give credit for. As an easy example, power companies could offer people discounts for putting their car charger on a digital control which only allows charging when there is surplus power. They do this with AC units. > So you set your EV to charge after midnight when demand is lowest. As more and more solar comes online, this is becoming less true. It may be beneficial to charge during daylight hours in the summer time. A lot of this is regional too.
- cptskippy 6y ago
  That's true, it might even become a necessity in order to save the grid from solar proliferation overloading the grid. I think that battery is going to become as important as solar to the future grid. Battery allows you to timeshift demand and could allow power companies to operate plants at a constant rate rather than throttling up and down. As renewables displace fossils, batteries will play even more important a role. We got solar + batteries in late November and it's been an interesting experience. We're on time-of-use billing to the batteries have allowed us to completely avoid peak charges.

ogre_codes 6y ago

I think there is a lot more flex in EV charging than people give credit for. As an easy example, power companies could offer people discounts for putting their car charger on a digital control which only allows charging when there is surplus power. They do this with AC units. > So you set your EV to charge after midnight when demand is lowest. As more and more solar comes online, this is becoming less true. It may be beneficial to charge during daylight hours in the summer time. A lot of this is regional too.

cptskippy 6y ago
That's true, it might even become a necessity in order to save the grid from solar proliferation overloading the grid. I think that battery is going to become as important as solar to the future grid. Battery allows you to timeshift demand and could allow power companies to operate plants at a constant rate rather than throttling up and down. As renewables displace fossils, batteries will play even more important a role. We got solar + batteries in late November and it's been an interesting experience. We're on time-of-use billing to the batteries have allowed us to completely avoid peak charges.