3 ms·

Adding the charging demand, some of which will inevitably occur at peak-demand, is not going to improve the stability of the grid compared to a gas car that nev

• seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  > Some of which will inevitably occur at peak-demand Some, but nowhere close to most. If 90% charge their cars at night, or even just at the grocery store after work, that is off peak.
• mitthrowaway2 3y ago
  It's not that simple. Feeding power back to the grid certainly helps (and this will likely become ubiquitous; even just tapping into the top 10% of capacity would be a massive benefit). But EVs connected to the grid can even help improve grid stability, even without feeding power back to the grid, through simple frequency-based dynamic demand methods. At peak demand, the grid is most sensitive to marginal loads. EVs that are charging at this time can modulate their power draw, even without returning power to the grid. In effect, if you turn on your kettle, a charging EV can simultaneously lower its draw rate by almost the exact same amount, so that the grid load gets smoothed out. This can be done without any data or networking. It is equivalent to adding additional rotating inertia to the grid, and very helpful for grid stability. It's a technology that is not widely adopted today, but very cheap to implement and likely to spread quickly.
  • goodSteveramos 3y ago
    the effect of increasing peak demand is going to outweight that advantage massively
    • mitthrowaway2 3y ago
      It actually does not.