🚀 go-pugleaf

jmc@Steam.stanford.edu (John McCarthy) wrote:
>
> I think Tom Gray has confirmed my point.  The storage capacity of
> electric cars will not add flexibility to the system, because the cars
> must almost always be recharged at their convenience rather than at
> the convenience of the grid operator.

Hmmm.  John, sometime you must try reproducing the stuff to which
you are responding.  This would have two salutary effects:  (1)
it would prevent you from misrepresenting what you have answered
and (2) it would force you to deal with what was actually said,
rather than what you wish to remember.  I recommend it as a useful
discipline.

The notion that EVs will not add flexibility to the grid is simply
nonsense.  Almost all other electricity requirements are
instantaneous, EVs are not.  They do not need to be supplied with
power as they are being used because they have batteries.  This
adds flexibility to the grid even with today's admittedly not-so
-great technology.  As the technology improves, the flexibility
will grow.  At the point, the grid operator may offer time-of-day
incentives to encourage charging at convenient times.

> Admittedly if your car were discharged and you weren't going to use it
> for (say) 24 hours, you could put its charger in a mode that would
> charge it at a time convenient for the grid.  This is unlikely to be
> frequent enough to do much good.  If I had an electric car, I'd want
> to recharge it right away, just in case I might have to use it.

All of this depends on how much you use the car, and how long it
takes to recharge.  The answer that is right for you may be exactly
right for everyone else, although I'd say that's unlikely--I think
it's more likely that everyone will have a slightly different take
on what suits them, especially if there is a pricing differential
for the power.

Tom Gray
Northeast Representative
American Wind Energy Association
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Interested in energy and the environment?  The free electronic
edition of _Wind Energy Weekly_ reports on energy-related
environmental issues, energy policy, and wind industry trade
news.  The electronic edition normally runs about 10kb in length.

For a subscription, send me an e-mail request.  Please include
information on your position, organization, and reason for
interest in the publication.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Gray <tomgray@econet.org>