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0 pointsleoedin4y ago0 comments

> The national grid is barely keeping up with current demand for electricity, I will be astounded if we manage to pull off anything nearing a reasonable solution to electrifying private vehicles.

That's simply untrue - National Grid don't forsee a problem. [1] Peak power usage in the UK was in 2005 - energy saving measures have been reducing it ever since. [2] The grid is today only delivering around 70% of the power it delivered in 2005.

Electric cars individually may have high peak charging loads, but if you calculate the total average power draw per car over a years driving, it's only about 200W. We may have to implement some level of demand management either in the cars or car chargers, but that's not particularly complicated - all the infrastructure already exists.

I do agree that the charging infrastructure is a long way off. Every street of terraced houses needs to be dug up and wired up with regular spaced charging points.

[1]: https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/journey-to-net-zero-sto... [2]: https://theconversation.com/britains-electricity-use-is-at-i...

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alias_neo4y ago

Fair points. Perhaps I was a little overzealous with that statement, I'm not going to change it as it's critical (by incorrect) to this discussion.

The problem, as I understand it, is with the condition of the grid, not its capacity. I know homes in London who literally have flickering lights and power issues as a regular occurrence, I've experienced it myself, it's large cities like London which would benefit most from complete electrification of vehicles and the supplies and equipment is ageing.

With tenders being awarded to those who claim to be the most carbon-neutral (National Grid's words) as opposed to actually providing high quality equipment (warning: my opinion), I foresee the problem worsening.

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