Comments on: Could plug-in cars zap the power grid?

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:40:06 +0000

Surely electric cars are just a false economy? They still require to be plugged in to an electricity power station means they are not green, not carbon friendly, and therefore have an extremely short shelf life.

By: billy

billy — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:43:00 +0000

The smart grid isn’t a theoretical concept

http://www.verooom.com

By: David

David — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:16:05 +0000

Chelsea! Read my and Steve’s comments. EVs can actually help rather than hinder the electric power system. The only real question is what will we use to make electricity in the future, solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, nuclear, waves, tides, etc? Burning natural gas isn’t a long term solution unless the CO2 can be recaptured somehow. Coal has to go ASAP. Oil next. Nukes have to be made safe–fail-safe. I would start with conservation. Fewer than 10% of the pickups and SUVs on the road are ever used for anything that a car can’t do better. We wouldn’t miss half the junk we buy (look around, how much of it do you really even use?). Buildings could be built to use half the energy for heating and cooling, starting tomorrow. Our lifestyles wouldn’t even be altered by these sorts of changes.

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:54:20 +0000

With Electric Cars we are building the cart BEFORE the horse. We don’t have excess electric power in our grids no..Not in China, Not in the USA not in India ,Not in australia,not in europe not anywhere..

On excessive heat of summer days we have routinely strained the US Electric system causing Blackouts & Brownouts already.

Where do you boys & girls think the extra power for our Electric power grid is supposed to come from while you talk of EV this & EV that? Thin air? Like T Boone Pickens says : we have enough CNG for the next 200 years. We have enough coal for the next 100 years w e have enough Wnd to make it part of the Power Grid solution. Shouldn’t we increase out capacity BEOFRE adding all these vehicles that will use up power on our already taxed system.

By: Tony Pelliccio

Tony Pelliccio — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:57:33 +0000

In my view the Smart Grid, like de-regulation of the energy industry is a red herring when it comes to consumer savings.

And lets fact it, our electric grid as it exists now is a purely early 20th century system. The 21st century grid should have at least 30 to 50 percent renewable energy in the mix.

By: Steve Mouzon

Steve Mouzon — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:48:55 +0000

Xavier, that’s the best thing, obviously! I moved from a completely unwalkable place 7 years ago to Miami Beach. My family driving dropped to 1/8 of what it was before. For example, I haven’t been in my car for five days right now. But for the people temporarily stuck in sprawl, electric cars have several notable advantages over gas-powered ones, IMO.

By: Xavier Longshot

Xavier Longshot — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:19:24 +0000

Why can’t people just walk more!!!!

By: Steve Mouzon

Steve Mouzon — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:07:21 +0000

There’s one huge issue this post dances around, but doesn’t really address fully: As noted, electric vehicles charge almost exclusively at night. As noted, peak load typically occurs in the afternoon, then drops off substantially. Why not connect the dots and realize that this isn’t so likely to be an immense problem? Matter of fact, electrical vehicles act as an ever-growing electrical storage system for the grid, drawing down power when the loads are lowest, then burning that power when the loads are highest, but they’re off-grid, driving around town. Electric vehicles are therefore more likely to be part of the solution than the problem.

By: David

David — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:24:25 +0000

Surprised there was no direct mention of the potential for vehicles that store or produce electricity to provide power to the owner or even the grid during peak demand periods. If your EV is 3/4 charged and just sitting in the driveway at 3pm, maybe you’d rather draw down a little of that storage rather than pay peak prices. Maybe your employer would pay you nicely for it. Maybe the city would let you park downtown for free given some kind of peak demand agreement.

By: John Robinson

John Robinson — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:01:01 +0000

One area that is poorly understood — except by operators of our electricity supply systems — is that today, the electricity delivery systems are designed with thermal limitations that depend upon cycling loads. At peak usage times, everything gets heated — often to the limit of temperatures that will damage equipment if the hevy loadscontinue for extended periods. The designs of today’s systems now depend on the cycling of loads so that typically, at night when loads are reduced, everything cools down somewhat — essentially catching its breath. The assumption that simply leveling the loads by filling in the “cool-down” periods of light loadtimes would have no serious impact is not correct. Assuming that existing systems can be fully loaded to a more constant level 24/7 by charging electric cars “off-peak” ignores they physical realities of thermal limitations and traditional therma cycling. In reality, significant growth of these additional “off-peak” loads still will require major — and extremely expensive — rebuilding of our entire electricity delivery systems. Smart Grids can help generation econiomics, but probably will not mitigate the delivery system limitations.