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the HN crowd tends to be overzealous about the pace of change in several industries. Electricity here is a good example. No, the electric grid is not constantl
by eldaisfish 3y ago
the HN crowd tends to be overzealous about the pace of change in several industries. Electricity here is a good example.
No, the electric grid is not constantly adding power capacity. In fact, capacity expansions are planned on the timescale of decades. the previous comment is accurate - everyone switching to EVs even on a single, 80 home street can cause havoc for which we are unprepared.
- bushbaba 3y agoUnprepared but solvable problem.
- thebruce87m 3y agoThe HN crowd is split across a lot of grids. Here are things my grid is doing: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_Link https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_Link https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/09/worlds-largest-offshore-windfarm-project-starts-powering-uk-grid https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/09/worlds-larg...
- marcosdumay 3y agoIMO, the helplessness of the US people when they talk about electricity distribution is hearth breaking. It's not even a "our society can't orchestrate this", but the opinion is usually "it's impossible for people to organize that way".
- ikt 3y agoWeirdly makes me happier with how Australia is progressing, a real 'it could be worse' situation
- AshamedCaptain 3y ago> it became operational on 1 October 2021 ... was first proposed in 2003 Hardly disagrees with the "timescale of decades" remark parent is making.
- thebruce87m 3y agoBut it does show that it changes though. If there is a 10 year pipeline with multiple projects in it then it’s not static.
- eldaisfish 3y agoMy claim was that change on the electric grid is slow, moreso at the distribution level. No one is claiming that change doesn't happen so you are arguing against a strawman. If there is a ten year pipeline, design decisions are made years in advance. Hence my claim that even a single street switching to EVs will cause havoc.
- thebruce87m 3y ago> No, the electric grid is not constantly adding power capacity. My strongest interpretation of this was you were saying that no capacity was being added. Any other interpretation doesn’t make sense. Everyone already knows that grids don’t have new capacity added on a constant basis, so nobody would say it. Even if it went through a growth phase, that would stop at some point for any number of reasons. I’ve done some calculations elsewhere in the thread that ( I think ) show that a 25% uptake of EVs in the UK all charged during the same 6 hour off-peak period would still not meet peak day demand. Even without those calculations I don’t see how you can claim a streets worth of EVs would cause havoc.
- eldaisfish 3y agoThe single most challenging issue in conversations about these topics is the role of time in the electricity sector's design process. The average home car charger is the largest consumer of power in a household, often by as much as 2x - 3x the next largest device. That next largest device is often a heat pump, radiant heat or electric stove. Calculations for the grid as a whole ignore the fact that there are local and regional capacity bottlenecks, where meeting demand becomes a problem and the solution requires years of planning. The feeder running along my street assumes a maximum power at each house of 10 kW and that 33% of houses consume that peak power at the same time. Imagine now if all houses added a 7 kW car charger, all charging during the night, every night. That is the havoc i refer to.
- jstsch 3y agoHere in NL there are continuous upgrades. Yes, the grid is stretched, and there are spots where commercial (or even additional residential) capacity is not available. But at the same time, the grid is upgraded on all levels, from street to international connectivity. It takes time, but EV's are no issue. Excess solar around noon is.
- petre 3y agoNL is smaller than West Virginia and very densely populated.