Re: Cyber attack EMP attack discussion Not Political
What I was saying was that to replace all gas powered cars by a deadline could overtax the grid if it isn't ready for the excess load.
To the extent that states have ICE vehicle phaseouts, I gather they A) only apply to new vehicle sales, and B) are so conditioned on sales of EVs and other hurdles that their headline dates are at best
aspirational.
It takes a lot of power to replace energy produced by millions of gas vehicles.
Indeed it does take non-significant energy to recharge EVs. But it's going to be a function of miles driven. Let's take the Model X - a crossover that's got a big-ish cross-sectional area so it's not the most efficient out there. Looking at its
efficiency ratings, worst-case is 35kWH / 100 miles or 350 Wh/mile. Let's say you drive 60 miles a day every day. 60 x 350 = 21,000 Wh or 21 kWH. If you're running a 50A dryer outlet at 40A that's 9.6kW or ~1.56 hours, which we'll round up to 94 minutes. And hey, charging is imperfect in its efficiency so we'll assume you lose 10% so that's really 104 minutes. That's what ... a load of laundry through a dryer? Baking a casserole? Sure, sometimes you'll need a longer charge just like sometimes you run back-to-back loads of laundry.
Meanwhile my air conditioning tends to run something like a 33% cycle when the temperature is merely in the low/mid 90s - 9.6 x 8 = ~77kWH if we stick with our 40A assumption.
And I believe that pretty much every EV on the market has some form of charge timer where you can delay recharging until an optimal time - late at night because of lower rates, or in 2 hours when the dryer will be done.
A battery is not a power source, it's a load. Gasoline is a power source. Gas powered cars provide the energy to power themselves with gas.
TANSTAAFL and all that. Pretty sure we're all solid on this concept.
Electric cars put a drain on the grid every time they are plugged in. The transmission lines need a serious upgrade to handle this increased load.
As does every other appliance that's not the subject of
special concern like air conditioning compressors, electric water heaters, electric ovens, electric dryers, pool pumps. Some of these run at higher duty cycles and during peak demand, while EVs tend to do the opposite. Yet strangely enough, we're not rubbing our hands with worry over these other additional loads.
Power generation needs to dramatically increase in the next decade to meet this increasing need.
I agree! Electrification of structure heating - so long as it's using heat pumps - is certain to play a major role in reducing emissions. This works -
in more mild climates, natch - even when the source of the electricity is gas. And it's not like it's terribly difficult for us to build solar farms, wind farms, geothermal plants
(although the latter have environmental impacts to consider and require routine re-drilling); many of which include or can be coupled with storage to smooth their power delivery.
But it's not going to specifically be
electric cars that push a state or a region over the brink any more than it is HVAC, water heaters, dryers, ovens, pool pumps;
it will be all of them combined with the primary culprit being the biggest consumer, likely HVAC.
Lastly specific to you, CA is on the western interconnection, thus importing power from out of state isn't an insurmountable hurdle. Unlike most of TX in February.
