California's electrical grid has an EV problem

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Yahoo Finance

California's electrical grid has an EV problem

Akiko Fujita · Anchor/Reporter
Thu, May 19, 2022, 5:17 AM

California energy officials issued a sobering warning this month, telling residents to brace for potential blackouts as the state’s energy grid faces capacity constraints heading into the summer months.

And since the state has committed to phase out all new gas-powered vehicles by 2035 — well ahead of federal targets — the additional load from electric vehicle (EV) charging could add more strain to the electric grid.

“Let’s say we were to have a substantial number of [electric] vehicles charging at home as everybody dreams,” Ram Rajagopal, an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, who authored a recent study looking at the strain electric vehicle adoption is expected to place on the power grid, told Yahoo Finance. “Today’s grid may not be able to support it. It all boils down to: Are you charging during the time solar power is on?”

EV charging in the race to net-zero emissions

In Sacramento, officials said California’s grid could face a potential shortfall of roughly 1,700 megawatts, which would affect the power supply of between 1 million and 4 million people this summer. That number would likely be exacerbated by an additional shortfall of 5,000 megawatts in the case of extreme heat and further fire damage to existing power lines.

{snip}

[Meadowoak]

1. when I get my 1st EV, I will install solar panels on my garage to power it.

[NNadir]

2. It's not even the tip of the flames.

Last summer their were long stretches of Dunkleflaute, coupled with extreme heat and air conditioning.

Because California is pretending to rely on so called "renewable energy," it needs a huge number of wires to connect all that crap together. The problems with wiring California to connect all this diffuse future electronic waste together have already been apparent, as Bob Dylan put it years ago in a different context, "Darkness at the break of noon..."

The results of the big delusional fantasy of running millions of electric cars powered by the sun and wind will be to burn gas - if they can get it - worsening climate change, and thus the State's access to water.

California has always been a trend setter, and of course, they're going to be killing the future by going "nuclear free."

It's a lesson in "be careful of what you wish for, you may get it."

[Finishline42]

3. Why would you do that?

“Today’s grid may not be able to support it. It all boils down to: Are you charging during the time solar power is on?”

Why not charge at night when there is excess capacity?

Why doesn't he mention wind?

Then build the infrastructure where EV's can be plugged in and sell their power during peak demand times?

[NNadir]

4. We're well past the age of wishful thinking.

California like all of the other fossil fuel dependent so called "renewable energy" nirvana has stretches lasting weeks where the wind doesn't blow. Anyone with a sense of or interest in reality can learn this easily by wading through the data at the CAISO website.

What's the proposal, to send out ambulances and fire trucks only when the sun is shining and/or the wind is blowing?

Congrats, all this stupid interminal wishful thinking has literally set the world afire. We're at greater than 421 ppm concentrations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste CO2 in the planetary atmosphere.

Congratulations again!

[hunter]

5. Can you imagine someone calling their boss in the morning and saying...

"Hey, I can't come in to work today because the sun wasn't shining and the wind wasn't blowing so I couldn't charge my car."

Nope, that's when electric cars are powered by natural gas.

You can check into the CASIO site occasionally and get a feeling for where the power people in California are using to charge their electric cars is coming from.

http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/supply.html

It's always difficult convincing renewable energy enthusiasts that natural gas is a very bad thing because their wind and solar schemes are not economically viable without it.

"Better than coal" won't save the world. We need high density energy sources that are capable of displacing fossil fuels entirely.

[oioioi]

6. Battery swapping is the way to go.