Electric Utilities can Tell your EV when to Charge

It's a "Questionable Source". I don't need that kind of garbage. Cite something reputable, and I'' read it..

 

The data are the data. Ignore them at your peril.

 

California, the state with the most EVs, is leading the way with efforts to eliminate peak load issues. This is not quite the sophistication mentioned in the title of this thread, but it can still be quite effective.

https://www.greencarreports.com/new...-charging-more-affordable-reduce-load-on-grid

So while California has required time-of-use rates that could incentivize EV owners to charge during off-peak times, that has been cost-prohibitive to some homeowners until now. But with chargers showing how much power is being used in real time, customers can take advantage of those time-of-use rates without having to spend extra money on a second meter.
...
By charging slowly, outside of peak hours, EV drivers still get the energy they need with fewer necessary upgrades to grid infrastructure. With the new rule in place, California could soon tap into smart charging's true potential.

 

We have been using a similar strategy to manage load here in the sticks for decades.

Irrigators are given the choice of how much “control” the public utility has. We can annually contract for “control days”. Days you choose for control, the utility can shut your well off as necessary any time between typically 9:00 am and 11:00 pm. If you choose full control management in your contract for a certain well, they can shut it off any day of the week between those hours. If it’s a larger field and full control doesn’t get you enough pumping time you can pay a higher rate and choose specific control days like Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or whatever you want. The more days you allow control, the lower the rate per kWh.

There is also a Hp charge, so the higher horsepower motors pay a surcharge on power.

Each well has a ripple switch that allows the utility to turn power on or off to that well at will. On cool days or if there has been rain in the area, loads are reduced and the utility will leave your well on even if it’s a control day.

It has worked well for decades. You can also rewrite your annual contract for a fee if it isn’t working out.

 

Cool! Wasn't aware of this.

 

Yep, combined with auto restart on wells it’s great. I rented a place when I was just starting out that didn’t have auto restart installed so I had to wait for release of control and go start the well manually. Could be 7:00 pm. Or 9:00 pm. Or 10:50 pm. Back then you had to listen to reports on am radio to know if your well was going to be released from control or not. Or go sit at the well and watch for the light on the ripple switch to turn green.

We are all public utility not for profit. Every decision is democratic and geared towards serving and saving the owner customers money. I’m not sure how these systems would pan out in for-profit models. Should still be workable, probably just higher cost across the board. But I don’t see why a similar system could serve EV charging by managing load and keeping rates as affordable as possible.

 

Benjamin Disraeli was correct in this

 

Very possible just by using smartphone apps. Tesla already has smartphone control of most of their car's features.

 

I’m sure it could be done. Would be much simpler, cheaper, and more reliable to just shut chargers off by signaling directly from the power grid operator through existing power lines to the charger. Not as cool though I guess.

I don’t know what the security and legal ramifications would be for one company to be able to control delivery of another company’s product through a third party’s phone. Not my wheelhouse but it seems fraught with potential problems.

 

I think with car charging, the users would want the ability to override, even if it costs more to do so. I think the user would have the ultimate control of when to charge, and the financial ramifications of those decisions. This MA Utility has a fairly large price discrepancy.

 

Sure. The system we use allows for overrides by the consumer if power is needed during control.

You do have to remember giving consumers complete control of load management would result in situations where overloading the grid would occur and result in failure that we were trying to avoid with load management to begin with.

 

Attribution to Disraeli is probably false.
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

University of York
https://www.york.ac.uk › depts › maths › histstat › lies


“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The article by Courtney quoted above is the published version of a speech on proportional ...

 

One of my assignments as an Electrical Engineer was to work in the Utilities department of a Fortune 500 company plant. The operators who run these plants and large Utility operators are extremely qualified. Many that I worked with, had Navy backgrounds on nuclear powered subs. They usually have a lot of flexibility as to how manage loads, and they are extremely proficient in managing them in the most efficient way. Example - they may run 3 turbines at 30-40%, instead of one at 100%, because it's more efficient. They may start up a 4th turbine if they foresee projected new baseload. Many use outside thermometers as part of their algorithms, to foresee upcoming load. I was involved in automation, and I often did programming that they wanted to try to automate some of these algorithms.

 

Yep. There are a lot of ways to manage load. The system we use here to integrate huge loads for irrigation works well. It could work just as well for EV charging.