"Does the electricity grid have enough capacity for charging EVs?
The most demand for electricity in recent years in the UK was for 62GW in 2002. Since then, the nation’s peak demand has fallen by roughly 16% due to improvements in energy efficiency.
Even if we all switched to EVs overnight, we believe demand would only increase by around 10%. So we’d still be using less power as a nation than we did in 2002 and this is well within the range of manageable load fluctuation.
The US grid is equally capable of handling more EVs on the roads – by the time 80% of the US owns an EV, this will only translate into a 10-15% increase in electricity consumption.1
A significant amount of electricity is used to refine oil for petrol and diesel. Fully Charged’s video Volts for Oil estimates that refining 1 gallon of petrol would use around 4.5kWh of electricity – so, as we start to use less petrol or diesel cars, some of that electricity capacity could become available."
Parts of the US grid are barely able to handle the load today. Rolling blackouts have been used in some areas. There may be enough total capacity to handle more use, but peak demand levels are already straining the system.
I'm skeptical of a narrative where concern for the electrical grid's ability to handle load is only considered for EV growth over several years versus the air conditioning use in the current unprecedented heatwave.
Anecdotally, my A/C energy usage (compared to last year) far outweighs my energy usage in an EV.
Not to mention radical increases from demanding everyone switch to heat pumps plus demanding industry switch to electrified versions of everything too. It's seriously a complete fantasy to think the grid can happen all that with minimal upgrades.
The US is a huge exception, your power grid is from the age when cowboys roamed the lands. Literally.
There was a huge fire that was caused by a power line slowly mechanically wearing down its connector. OVER A HUNDRED YEARS. Nobody bothered to check or replace it.
Also you have exceptions for oil and gas pipelines. 1-2 permits on a high level and the land owners can pound sand if they complain.
For power lines you need levels on a dozen different levels and even after that everyone who can even see the power poles has the irrefutable right to veto said wire or at the very least sue and slow it down to a crawl...
You may be referring to California who had issues last year during an historically high heat wave. This year, they are not having the same trouble. Part of the reason is that they increased production capacity since last year.
The main reason is that this summer has been much, much cooler in CA. In SV, for example, we've had a handful of days over 90 this year, whereas last year there were probably 20 days over 90 at this point in the summer. Our AC has only kicked on a few times all year, whereas last year it was on much more frequently.
There may have been increases in production, but it would have been shocking if we'd had rolling blackouts this year, given how mild the summer has been. Other parts of CA are warmer than SV, but AFAIK (having family in Sacramento and LA) this summer has been cooler than last summer all over CA.
But that’s highly localized. And one of the most reported areas where this happens is Texas, who decided to roll their own grid, and is now paying the price for that stupidity.
This question depends on the specifics of local energy generation, so you’re not going to get good answers without zooming in.
Japan’s electrical grid has some unique challenges that explain why they are so interested in hydrogen. An article about the UK isn’t all that relevant for that,
Talking about the US electrical grid as a single entity doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when it’s not a single, nationwide market. There can definitely be local problems as we saw in Texas and California.
"Does the electricity grid have enough capacity for charging EVs?
The most demand for electricity in recent years in the UK was for 62GW in 2002. Since then, the nation’s peak demand has fallen by roughly 16% due to improvements in energy efficiency.
Even if we all switched to EVs overnight, we believe demand would only increase by around 10%. So we’d still be using less power as a nation than we did in 2002 and this is well within the range of manageable load fluctuation.
The US grid is equally capable of handling more EVs on the roads – by the time 80% of the US owns an EV, this will only translate into a 10-15% increase in electricity consumption.1
A significant amount of electricity is used to refine oil for petrol and diesel. Fully Charged’s video Volts for Oil estimates that refining 1 gallon of petrol would use around 4.5kWh of electricity – so, as we start to use less petrol or diesel cars, some of that electricity capacity could become available."