Essay by Eric Worrall
“At the moment our electricity grid is not coping at all”: According to Origin Energy, a major Aussie supplier, unless smart chargers are used to shift EV charging load away from peak times, the grid will struggle to cope with people plugging their vehicles in after work.
Electric vehicles could significantly increase demand on the power grid, trials underway to change energy use behaviour
By Kym Agius
Electric cars could increase demand on the power grid during the evening peak by at least 30 per cent unless households adopt smart charging, a new trial shows.
Key points:
- A trial of 150 electric car users revealed their potential impact on the power grid’s evening peak
- Demand could rise between 30 and 100 per cent
- Work underway to understand what upgrades could be needed to the electricity network
Origin Energy has teamed up with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to understand ways to change the behaviour of electric car owners before their mass adoption in Australia.
With the threat of blackouts a reality amid higher prices and demand, Origin’s general manager of e-mobility Chau Le said the network would struggle once EVs became more popular.
“At the moment our electricity grid is not coping at all,” she said.
“If we were to add another 30 per cent of peak load to the grid during those periods of high prices and constraints on the network, this would require significant investment to increase capacity.”
…
It found that without intervention, 30 per cent of charging was done in the evening peak, between 3pm and 9pm.
…
What a mess – welcome to our energy rationed, energy impoverished future. If only our energy and climate minister wasn’t so anti-nuclear. A zero carbon nuclear powered grid, like they have in France, would have no problem charging an EV any time of day or night – no need for energy rationing if you have nuclear power.
Imagine the impact on EV owners.
If I owned an EV I would want to plug in as soon as I get home, so there is plenty of charge if I need to make an unexpected late night trip. And I’d like plenty of charge in the morning, for the commute to work. Then plug in at work, pick up a good charge during the solar peak, then back on the charger at home.
If any of these charging periods are removed or degraded, it will significantly inconvenience EV owners. If you can’t plug in as soon as you get home, and you live a few miles outside town, you will potentially suffer range anxiety if one of the kids suffers an unexpected night time medical issue, or if a friend invites you out, or you need to make an unexpected dash to the supermarket. Even worse if your vehicle doesn’t charge at all overnight, due to low wind and cold weather draining all available electricity from the grid.
EVs almost make sense, if you ignore the occasional need for a long distance trip, the high cost, and the distressing tendency of EVs to spontaneously combust. But only if you can charge the EV at your convenience. Otherwise EVs are even more of a joke than they are at present.
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Is there something wrong here? Origin are mainly Electricity Retailers and Generators. Not sure they own any Network assets at all. Nothing in Wikipedia about it. The ABC story tells that Origin is teaming up with ARENA *and power distributors* with this initiative.
Sure I understand that retail pricing can be used to send signals to improve network utilisation but not sure Origin should be talking about “our grid”.
Most distribution networks become less loaded after about 8pm (evening peak). So from 8pm till 5am next day gives 9 hours of solid EV charging. Surely this is just a simple TOU tariff to encourage EV charging in that window. Not really rocket science or a complex problem.
Storm in a tea cup compared to the huge safety hazards of EV extension leads across footpaths to charge street-parked cars. Now that worries distributors much more.
“Storm in a tea cup compared to the huge safety hazards of EV extension leads across footpaths to charge street-parked cars. Now that worries distributors much more.”
Don’t worry about this. The cable thieves will be by shortly to remove all the cables so they can sell them for copper salvage!!
A friend of my wife has been without internet and landline connection for several months this year as thieves stole the wires and their replacements were gone within two weeks.
Gypsies love a bit of copper cable,
When there are 100% EVs the peak usage will be 8PM to 5AM as those vehicle recharge.
There are currently over 1.4 billion ICEvs in the world. The IEA’s best estimate is that there might be 250 to 300 million EVs worldwide by by 2030. The EU estimates that there might be 140 to 220 million EVs in the EU by 2050.
It’s going to take an awful long time to get to 100% EVs if ever.
Li-Ion Batteries are expensive to manufacture and will only get more expensive as demand for raw materials increase. This article supporting a different technology has good info on battery costs for EV’s but I don’t believe that their solution is any better. But at least the data is useful.
Lithium-Sulfur Batteries are a Long-Term Solution to Rising EV Costsby George Liddle | Mar 15, 2022 | Batteries, Battery Supply Chain, Electric Vehicles
As many people involved in the development of electric vehicles and their batteries know, almost half the cost of a new EV comes from its battery pack. That’s huge, particularly when you consider that traditional internal combustion engines (ICE) represent only 20 – 30% of vehicle costs today (see chart below). Now imagine that you’re an ICE vehicle manufacturer, and the cost of core materials to make the engine block are skyrocketing by factors of 50% to over 400%. How would you handle pricing your vehicles? You’d raise price by a lot because you need to make money instead of lose money when you sell them. Fortunately, that’s never happened in the ICE vehicle business.
More at: Lithium-Sulfur Batteries are a Long-Term Solution to Rising EV Costs – Batteries for Electric Vehicles from Lyten
But the IEA say that lithium prices have risen almost 750% since Jan 2021and they foresee worldwide shortages of lithium as early as 2025 so are lithium-sulpher batteries really going to make much of a difference?
1) A lithium-sulfur battery still has lithium.
2) How much heavier is this new battery? Li-ion was originally chosen because of its light weight.
3) Given how widely used iron is, even a tripling of ICE production wouldn’t have much of an impact on iron prices. Regardless, even if iron does double in price, the increased cost of an engine would be only a few dollars. Heck, the increase in cost for the entire care would only be a $100 or so.
They’re just now starting to figure this out?
DUH! Expect more of this when the WOKE take control.
Firstly, the peak electrical power demand hours are not in the evening but during the day.
Most EV charging is done overnight. If the government wants to mandate some sort of “charging hours” window, fine. Or, utilities can vary their power costs by time of day, as most already do now, with higher prices for peak demand hours, whatever they are in that area. The most effective incentive is money, anyway.
Most current model home EV chargers are so-called “smart” units that are programmable to charge only during off peak hours depending upon the local utility rate tables.
Finally, utilities love it when people use power at night because the most effective grid system is one that delivers power at a continuous static rate, rather than rates with large peaks and valleys. EVs are a great tool for doing that.
Duane, you have been corrected on this lie many times.
Peak demand is around 6pm.
EV charging is currently being done overnight. That can no longer be the case once your precious wind and solar become more than a tiny fraction of power production.
So you are fine with the government micro-managing everyone’s life. Everyday you demonstrate that your earlier claim to have been a Trump voter is just another of your lies.
Here let me help Mark out with some current TOU electricity prices in Adelaide South Australia so he can run his cursor over the pie chart times-
Origin Basic – No Exit Fees (ORI152792MRE) | Energy Made Easy
Lefties love their averages(they want everyone to be average) and the average commuter does 30kms a day so with V2G the masses can all buy long range Teslas to firm the grid as they don’t need all that range. Never mind at night when coal goes and there’s not enough wind for any controlled load/off-peak rates as the nasty capitalist bosses etc will naturally put in EV chargers at work and carparks and surrounding streets to take advantage of the solar duck curve.
Bobsyeruncle and the global temperature is back to where lefties know it should be and don’t forget folks-
The Earth Is Warming, So Why Is Australia So Cold Right Now? (msn.com)
PS: There is a small hiccup with the vision splendid but nothing Gummints and their central banks can’t fix-
Elon Musk: Tesla’s Newest Factories Are ‘Money Furnaces’ (gizmodo.com)
“Firstly, the peak electrical power demand hours are not in the evening but during the day.”
When some charging stations take 10-12 hours to fully charge your EV, how can that happen if your “smart” charger limits the charging hours?
go here: https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/peak-hour-electricity-explained
You’ll find out that especially in the winter, peak electricity usage is in the evenings.
I know this has been pointed out to you before. Are you incapable of learning?
Understanding the bleeding obvious is quite beyond the capacities of almost all the current Australian politicians. They are particularly lacking in knowledge of Climate History, atmospheric physics, power generation, power distribution, and the basic knowledge of how batteries work.
Somebody has calculated the additional Australian EV power requirement by taking the total fuel amount sold in Australia over one year and converting that figure to energy. Comes out as a 60% increase in Australia’s current energy requirements.
The only problem with such a calculation is that it assumes that the electric grid is 100% efficient at getting power from the source to the electric motor. The reality is that at best only half of the power will make it all the way to the motors. As a result that 60% increase becomes more like a 120% increase.
EVs are the solution to a problem no-one had.
Gotta love those EVs…
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/A-Tesla-was-in-a-junkyard-for-three-weeks-Then-17257470.php
‘With the threat of blackouts a reality amid higher prices and demand, Origin’s general manager of e-mobility Chau Le said the network would struggle once EVs became more popular.’
Well thank you Captain Obvious. ICE looking smarter by the day.
Unlikely to become a problem as its unlikely EV’s will become popular.
it doesn’t matter if they are popular or not, if government mandates their use.