

Running out of juice: How will we recharge all the electric cars? - cwan
http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/techview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15434416

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Afton
This seems long on hand-wringing, and short on actual problems.

For example, the article notes that cars recharging at night will help utility
companies to even out their demand-curve. The article then worries about
whether the utilities will want to run their network at full-capacity, and how
having it always running would be a maintenance problem. But that's
ridiculous, of course the utility companies want to run at higher capacity and
sell more utility. If their network is being taxed, they (or a competitor) can
build more power generation and the problem is solved.

Similarly, if the concern is around the peak/off-peak power pricing, these
times can be adjusted (if, for example, the car recharging 5-7pm the new
highest power consumption times).

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hga
OK, I haven't Read The Fine Article, but an earlier item from the IEEE that I
think was submitted to HN pointed out among other things that neighborhood
transformers aren't sized for high output 24x7 (they need off-peak nights to
cool). California utilities expect to lose some _this year_ in areas like
Santa Monica.

There were other issues mentioned, like a Canadian utility that sells cheap
"green" hydropower to California during the day and saves up water during the
night; if they/California get a lot of nighttime demand they'll have to buy
coal fired power from another province.

Hey, the system was build under one set of assumptions; if you change those
_drastically_ as the electric car people propose to do it won't adapt
automatically or cheaply. You can't fool Mother Nature.

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balding_n_tired
"in places like Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC,
every other car seems to be a Toyota Prius"

Can't speak to LA and the Bay Area, but I live in Washington, and if I got a
dollar for every Prius sighting, it wouldn't cover my bus fare at $2.50/day.

