Will this coming Winter's rolling power-cuts change your BEV driving?

Kramer · 16-08-2021 5:29pm #1

Commuting etc? Will you keep your BEV more fully charged at home lest the power goes out when you need a charge?

Longer commutes, motorway journeys etc. - will you take your ICE & leave the BEV at home lest the DC charging location you need is without power? Could there be many scenes of BEVs stuck at dead chargers at motorway services?

Two decades ago, we read this:

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/esb-faces-20m-bill-to-avert-winter-power-failure-26249937.html

Today we read EXACTLY THE SAME! The scenario is identical, right down to the 200MW shortfall. The only difference is that we have no emergency generators this time - some irregularity in the procurement. So Paddy must sit in the dark!

'Cause, incompetence, like.

https://www.businesspost.ie/energy/blackouts-loom-this-winter-as-emergency-plan-is-abandoned-f5281ae2

PHEVs for the win!

😀

slave1 · 16-08-2021 6:56pm

We have two back up generators, they are plane jet engines with 24/7 Applegreen contract to keep them topped up given they can burn through full tankers a day

fits · 16-08-2021 7:39pm

we are almost completely reliant on electricity for heating and cooking so I would not be amused. But we still have a diesel and will for foreseeable so transport would be least of the worries.

zg3409 · 16-08-2021 7:54pm

It's rare we don't have power for more than 30 minutes a year, we live in a town. Typically these type cuts would happen at peak times, say 5 to 7pm, so you would not have much an issue charging a car overnight. EVs have potential to help the grid by stopping charging for a few minutes at peak times to help the network.

I think it's mostly hype, we can buy power from NI and UK and sure we can just cut off the west, no one would notice!

Kramer · 16-08-2021 8:35pm

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2021/0816/1241055-electricity/

So, it's the fault of EVs, heat pumps & data centres!

Some real quick calculations here.

10,000 BEVs, driving 15,000km/year, using 18kWh/100km, charged at home (averaging 60kWh/week each), against 2 million households, averaging 12,000kWh/year each, puts 99.99% of domestic electricity NOT being used to charge EVs.

Or, 0.01% of domestic electricity is being used to charge EVs.

That doesn't even begin to account for commercial use of energy, which is probably a multiple of domestic use?

But we face rolling blackouts, because Mary in number 16 has a 24kWh Leaf 😂.

Still on target for 1,000,000 EVs by 2050 are we?

Kramer · 16-08-2021 8:40pm

we can buy power from NI and UK and sure we can just cut off the west, no one would notice!

We can't import UK electricity since brexit.............it needs to go through customs in Portlaoise..........non EU origin ya see.......need to tax it first........then carbon tax it again to be green & PSO levy it too...........

Can we apply VRT to it too, maybe NOx aswell? Tax it at source........polluter pays principle.......😁

graememk · 16-08-2021 9:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117763902#Comment_117763902

Cut off Donegal too while your at it, we have the hydro powerstation in bally shannon, and a pile of wind. We'll be grand! - Can a stirling engine be run off turf?

PaulRyan97 · 16-08-2021 11:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117763882#Comment_117763882

The average Irish home uses ~4000kWh per annum, not 12,000.

AndyBoBandy · 17-08-2021 9:25am

As someone 'on the inside', I can confidently say the Cork generator they speak of will be back up and running fairly soon. (its actually not the generator, which is fine, its the gas turbine that turns the generator which has the issue.

We have our top men on it. our TOP MEN.

Also, Dublin Bay successfully came back onine last week after a long outage, so there's an extra ~400MW of reliable supply back on the grid.

Gas Turbines are basically just big jet engines anyway, but instead of turning a huge fan, they turn a huge generator. The smaller aeroderivative gas turbines (plane engines that run generators) are typically in or around the 22MW mark, so you'd need around 20 of them to replace the capacity of 1 CCGT plant.

fits · 17-08-2021 10:45am

Good luck with getting it back working Andy 😁

Kramer · 17-08-2021 6:28pm

The average Irish home uses ~4000kWh per annum, not 12,000.

You are 100% correct! I had seen the 12,000kWh figure on bonkers recently while switching supplier, but that was for gas.

It makes using EVs as a scapegoat for possible blackouts, even more farcical. Probably 99.995% of domestic electricity then IS NOT used for charging EVs.

Hoping Andy gets his local genny working in time & we avert power cuts, but then that begs the question why were we spending over €100m to rent unneeded extra capacity?

https://www.businesspost.ie/energy/eirgrid-to-spend-eur100m-on-emergency-power-for-winter-de7d5413

Their plan was thwarted so we're in either one of two scenarios now.

We didn't need to spend the €100m+ in the first place or
We'll have rolling blackouts this winter.

Just imagine the effect power cuts could have on EV adoption..........."glad I didn't buy an electric.......what use is a car you can't charge.........glad I stuck with my diesel..........it's those fu@k!ng electric cars causing these power cuts..........I can't cook a dinner now ........pr1cks next door & their fu@k!ng Tesla".....etc. 😀

Too much?

MightyMunster · 19-08-2021 11:43am

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/plan-to-stave-off-electricity-blackouts-this-winter-1.4648692%3fmode%3Damp

Looks like it's all on track, no issue here. The usual FUD? Blackouts for a few hours presumably at peak times not an issue for most charging which is done at night. Bigger issue for people trying to cook dinner after work

ELM327 · 19-08-2021 11:59am

Power cuts likely between 5-7pm or so, at peak demand.

Not many people would be charging an EV. It's more likely that your cuppa with corrie would be interrupted.

the_amazing_raisin · 27-08-2021 7:50am

Most likely the market rate of the electricity will skyrocket and all the heavy consumers who follow those rates will curtail their operations to offset the cost

The average consumer will be hit with rate hikes (as usual) and those "lucky" customers with smart meters will see their jaws drop when they see the peak rate in the evening

ted1 · 27-08-2021 9:33am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117809228#Comment_117809228

No that won’t happen.

the_amazing_raisin · 27-08-2021 11:44am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117809535#Comment_117809535

Which part? If you're referring to the rate hikes then we've already been hit with 3 increases this year, so why not a 4th one?

As for heavy consumers, to a large extent it depends on what they're doing and whether it makes financial sense to move operations to times when electricity is cheaper. If electricity is expensive enough then they'll do it

Eirgrid were saying the exact same thing last year about potential power cuts, basically they needed the perfect storm of low renewables, generators being down and the UK/NI not exporting to us. Surprise surprise, none of it ever happened

It isn't a 0% chance, and I'm all in favour of adding things like storage or more interconnectors with France to give us more options, but it's far from doom and gloom

Will this coming Winter's rolling power-cuts change your BEV driving?

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