Toyota shoots itself in the tackle

[chrisp]

It’s a downside as well as a benefit. Any EVs plugged in can be used to support the grid by discharging their batteries into the grid to support it. That requires two way chargers and a suitable compensation mechanism to make it happen though.

… and that’s exactly the technology I’m waiting for before I‘ll buy a small EV for a city runabout. I can definitely see better bangs-for-bucks for a V2G than a home battery.

 

[J_D 2.0]

… and that’s exactly the technology I’m waiting for before I‘ll buy a small EV for a city runabout. I can definitely see better bangs-for-bucks for a V2G than a home battery.

Exactly. Two birds one stone!

 

[vc commodore]

Good point, but I don’t think that we’ll be charging all of them at the same time. A bit like our petrol stations would be overwhelmed if everyone was trying to fill up at the same time.

I suspect that market incentives will kick in to encourage recharging when energy is more available, a bit like the oLe ‘off peak’ tariffs of the days gone by.

Most people will be charging them at night time....The power rationing period that was touted was night time...So that in effect means, a few dead batteries, unless the grid is upgraded to cope with the surge in EV's the govco wants

 

[DavesSV6Tonner]

It’s a downside as well as a benefit. Any EVs plugged in can be used to support the grid by discharging their batteries into the grid to support it. That requires two way chargers and a suitable compensation mechanism to make it happen though.

F*** that. If I owned an EV I would have it plugged in to charge it for the next days activities, not jump in in the morning to head off to work or whatever to find most of the charge has been sucked back out for the benefit of the grid and only 20km range left in the battery. Hypothetical situation of course.

 

[Martbar]

I can't see any reason why E.Vs of the future won't be able to to provide enough power, though exterior solar panels and pulse generators and the like, to normally not need charging.
Hydrogen motors the size of a football can generate about 300hp and slightly more torque.

 

[Immortality]

Here in Auckland we already have a fair few EV chargers in carparks as well as charging stations along some highways.

 

[J_D 2.0]

F*** that. If I owned an EV I would have it plugged in to charge it for the next days activities, not jump in in the morning to head off to work or whatever to find most of the charge has been sucked back out for the benefit of the grid and only 20km range left in the battery. Hypothetical situation of course.

Well ideally it won’t work that way. You’ll specify a time you want it fully charged by (say 6:00am) and it will only discharge to the grid until such time as it needs to charge again to bring it up to 100% by 6:00am.

Of course I’m not designing this shite so my drunk hair brained ideas will take a cast of thousands and a 50 million dollar government grant to figure out what I just said!

 

[Fu Manchu]

Most people will be charging them at night time....The power rationing period that was touted was night time...So that in effect means, a few dead batteries, unless the grid is upgraded to cope with the surge in EV's the govco wants

Unless we have suburban coal powered micro generators. Maybe just diesel then? Sounds like a solution. There we go. Done.

 

[Fu Manchu]

My thinking is that we would need to completely rebuild and restructure the power grid from scratch to migrate energy use over to multiple inputs and satisfy future needs.

…Like our internet.

 

[chrisp]

My thinking is that we would need to completely rebuild and restructure the power grid from scratch to migrate energy use over to multiple inputs and satisfy future needs.

…Like our internet.

Definitely, you got it in one!

In the old days, the grid essentially had a ‘down hill’ energy flow from the generator down to the consumer. Nowadays, individual homes can be generators, and on really sunny days it’s possible that some suburban regions also become generators. It can play havoc with voltage regulation in some areas (and sometimes PV systems will disconnect due to the excessive voltage - as they are designed to do).

We are moving to a more distributed generation system/grid where we have millions of small generators instead of a few big generators. It also makes the stabilisation of the grid a more complex exercise.