No one wants to answer this one simple question.
"What happens if 15% of Americans switch to electric cars and all plug them into our grid when they get off work at 5PM"?
Notice no one on TV, no politicians, no eco freaks ever discuss this simple concept. Wonder why? đ¤
Bcs they stil have to cook up some bullshit story for people to believe. In the end they will have all the answers needed to satisfy the herd.
Then weâll get more of the same âvid tactics of âstay home to save the environment! See how much youâre ruining the planet by using so much electricity you filthy first world spoiled brat!â - and that dialog ainât far from actual stuff Iâve heard.
Your premise is not what's happening. People charge electric cars at work throughout the day and the load is balanced by "market" pricing between "cheaper at work" vs "cheaper at home". Second, the charging is distributable over night, which is actually convenient for consumption during time when there's not much other consumption from energy provider perspective.
I agree that push to electric for ESG reasons is stupid and will hurt the poorest the most.
when I get home I plug my phone in. every day. because if I don't I will forget. regardless of how long my phone charged during the day, the phones battery capacity has diminished over time. I gave to plug in more often over time. the way I see it, most people will plug in when they get home. just as you say, they'll plug in when they get to work, so spikes in consumption will be at just before the hour in the mornings too. these spikes in consumption may be short but if demanding, is the infrastructure ready?
You may have noticed that the phones now do "smart charging", where they actually target to have 100% charge in the 7am next day rather than ASAP. This can be disabled, but it improves the battery health - i.e. the battery can then have longer lifespan.
so my car won't be ready to go until 7am? so if I decide to leave in the middle of the night to drive somewhere unexpected, my car might not be ready? yeah, that won't work for most. good luck with that.
If using smart charging, your car will have e.g. 50% charge. If you don't like this, you can disable or configure it the way you want. Like you can let it charge asap and be ready to go 200 miles in the middle of the night and that's ok too.
I think you're giving the masses a lot of credit. I think most aren't going to configure anything. won't want to be bothered. how it comes is how it'll work.
I'm not sure which way you are arguing?
I'm saying this will be the solution to prevent energy consumption spikes and that majority of people won't care enough to change anything about the default. We seem to agree on the second part at least.
If I understood correctly you are saying this won't work for majority of people, but there I disagree. I think this won't be a problem for majority of people and only some smaller group will have problems.
yes, we disagree.
Market pricing and delayed charging are the correct answer (to the extent there is one), but charging after work is still an issue, because the commute home has to be recharged. As you point out, there is also an analogous event at the start of the work day, which occurs during higher energy demand.
Itâs definitely going to take a lot more micro generation at the local level.
The infrastructure is not there. Some of the smaller Rural Electric Co-op's couldn't even handle if 5% of their customers got an electric vehicle even if they could a lot of homes are wired to the bare minimum and couldn't handle adding the circuit needed for a charger.
I don't think this a rock solid argument against electric vehicles, too much sleight of hand for how the charging would happen, and most people can't math anyway. Also, despite what the GOV mandates there's no way to increase supply of batteries to get to 15% anytime soon, so the counterpoint could argue, "We'll build the infrastructure as needed"
If pressed to argue for electric my response would be something like;
"My phone charges slower at night to increase battery longevity, it can be turned off if you need to but that's the factory default. Most people are too afraid of bricking their phones, let alone their car, to touch any settings. Why couldn't the automakers just build that into the charging software. Shit, they'd probably market it as a feature, 'Enter your commute time so we can ensure your vehicle is fully charged'."
I'm not sure of the actual numbers but I'd guess that it still creates a massive demand for power at night, that would necessitate keeping peaker plants on longer than designed and ultimately shorten their lifespan. But you know how well disposed the general public is to nuance. Besides they'll just adjust charging priority based on your social credit score with an additional weighting for "necessary personnel"
Add to that switching to all electric kitchens required in California (except a carve-out for one Chef in Palo Alto) and throw in a âPublic Safety Power Shutdownâ to make it fancy!
Of course, if they did it at once many people would be without power. But one could also ask: what would happen if 15% of Americans opened a lightning channel at once?
I am against the ESG bullshit narrative, but I don't think this is a good argument.
God dammit, I can't go to work cause my smart meter disabled my car charger to save energy. I wonder why they never turn off my Alexa!
What about all those EV owners evacuating from the coast ahead of a hurricane? Big mess with clogged interstates & potential EV fires.
