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The grid needs 30% more power generation. If all cars are EV. CA is doing rolling blackouts as it is. Maybe Californians will be riding horses in the next 10
by GoldenMonkey 4y ago
The grid needs 30% more power generation. If all cars are EV. CA is doing rolling blackouts as it is.
Maybe Californians will be riding horses in the next 10 years ;)
- outside1234 4y agoThere is substantial unused grid capacity overnight and during the day that the most basic of smart grid logic can schedule the car to turn on charging during. In other words, shift the demand from the 4-9PM slot that is the hot spot. For what this doesn't cover, this is not rocket science. We will build the capacity. It's just wires and generators.
- ryantgtg 4y agoAnd storage. I work at an engineering firm that is heavily involved in these efforts in SoCal, and this is probably boring to say (without details) but the storage component is fascinating. Not my sector, though, so I won’t/can’t elaborate (I do work in sustainable transportation planning, though).
- dangrossman 4y agoI am curious how a voluntary "please conserve power 4 hours a day during a historic heat wave" request turned into "CA is doing rolling blackouts because they don't have enough energy" in the minds of millions. Residential electric use doubled over the past 30 years without issue.
- ryantgtg 4y agoThe NYTimes The Daily podcast described the voluntary request as “the state asked people to not charge their EVs” (paraphrase). Poor quality information everywhere.
- anikom15 4y agoRolling blackouts are separate from Flex Alerts.
- dangrossman 4y agoHence me asking why they're being conflated in the public consciousness.
- anikom15 4y agoAre they? Both of these things happen regularly in California and have been for decades.
- ryantgtg 4y agoCalifornia is a big state. In Southern California, neither of those things happen regularly (source: I've lived here since 1980). The last time they did happen regularly was with Enron.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoEven if all new cars were 100% electric from now on, it'd take twenty years to convert all cars. 30% more power generation in 20 years is 1.5% per year. Not a big ask.