Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Martyn1981

JKenH said:

E-car chargers will turn off to prevent blackouts

Now we know why National Grid are so confident EVs won’t cause black outs. 

Electric car charging points in people’s homes will be preset to switch off for nine hours each weekday at times of peak demand because ministers fear blackouts on the National Grid.

Under regulations that will come into force in May, new chargers in the home and workplace will be automatically set not to function from 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm. Public chargers and rapid chargers, on motorways and A-roads, will be exempt.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e-car-chargers-will-turn-off-to-prevent-blackouts-jnm2m86pz

As I mentioned in my posts, including the comments I copied from a year or so ago, the chargers being installed at homes are smart chargers, enabling demand management:

Moving on to your charge management if we reach 10% BEV's. Well first off that is already happening as the home chargers (7kW) being rolled out are 'smart' and therefore charge management can be deployed. But more importantly we need to go back to real demand, rather than panic over theoretical extremes.

That was one of the many reasons I tried to give to show that hysteria about power or energy impacts to the grid are not new, and are already being addressed. I assume (I believe safely) that the smart people involved in this, will continue to monitor the situation and revise policies as needed.

It's kinda like all the people on these threads around 5-10yrs ago explaining how lots of demand side PV generation could cause damage to the local infrastructure and household appliances due to them pushing up the local grid voltage - and myself and others tried to explain that DNO certification of grid tied inverters already required them to shut down when the local grid reached 253V.

JKenH

Here's Why Adding An Engine To A Tesla Is A Good Thing

https://carbuzz.com/news/heres-why-adding-an-engine-to-a-tesla-is-a-good-thing

CKhalvashi

Posting as I know this will interest some, my  phone for some reason won't let me post photos, so will have to wait until later in the week.

I drove a TMY yesterday, an EU-spec LR model.

Energy consumption average showing at around 196wh/km, although it should be noted that the car has been driven from the country of delivery to the country I'm in, then cross-country 3 times (for registration purposes) and will generally be used in the city where it is expected this will decrease significantly.

Its quiet, feels actually quite sporty to drive and in addition feels well built and responsive. 

Cost on the road fully registered outside the EU to the owning company was around €53000.

Edit: It's an 82kWh version, I assumed it was the LR but it may not be. 

michaels

Interesting, I thought the TMYs coming to the EU were from China and were only the SR LFP models.  How does the price compare to what you would pay for a similar range/spec ID4 in the same market?

CKhalvashi

michaels said:

Interesting, I thought the TMYs coming to the EU were from China and were only the SR LFP models.  How does the price compare to what you would pay for a similar range/spec ID4 in the same market?

I will double check the specs, I was sure it was a LR, but as I'm only contracting for the company for a few days and only had it for a few hours I may be wrong.

The ID4 isn't officially available here either, but at a quick look a 77kWh version would be available from around €39000 in the Pro Performance spec (From VW's Polish website) ex-VAT but with local registration taxes paid for this model with no options.

Edit as above, the TMY is an 82kWh version.

Martyn1981

michaels said:

Interesting, I thought the TMYs coming to the EU were from China and were only the SR LFP models.  How does the price compare to what you would pay for a similar range/spec ID4 in the same market?

Got to be honest, I thought the opposite, that the TMY's being shipped to Europe were only the LR AWD models.

michaels

I am probably wrong, i just thought that for the m3 the chinese ones were sr lfps and that lr ncm came from the us. 

JKenH

JKenH said:

PE-car chargers will turn off to prevent blackouts

Now we know why National Grid are so confident EVs won’t cause black outs. 

Electric car charging points in people’s homes will be preset to switch off for nine hours each weekday at times of peak demand because ministers fear blackouts on the National Grid.

Under regulations that will come into force in May, new chargers in the home and workplace will be automatically set not to function from 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm. Public chargers and rapid chargers, on motorways and A-roads, will be exempt.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e-car-chargers-will-turn-off-to-prevent-blackouts-jnm2m86pz

There is a bit more detail in this article.

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-fleet-news/2021/09/13/charge-points-to-be-switched-off-for-nine-hours-to-protect-grid

A ‘randomised delay’ of up to 30 minutes, when there is high demand from motorists, will also be introduced as more company car drivers make the switch to EVs away from diesel and petrol.

Tanya Sinclair, policy director for UK and Ireland at ChargePoint, said: “Concerns surrounding the UK’s grid to support the charging of electric vehicles is mounting.

“The challenge for the Government, and perhaps the wider electricity system, is ensuring the ‘smartness’ in every charger is actively used by consumers, and managing the load represented by the legacy charging infrastructure already in the field which is not smart.”

News of the charge point switch off comes after MPs on the transport committee warned that unless charging habits change the charging needs from millions of new EVs will cause blackouts to parts of the country. 

JKenH

Extract from government document issued in July

Electric Vehicle Smart Charging

Government Response to the 2019 Consultation on Electric Vehicle Smart Charging

Grid stability: randomised delay function

In the consultation, Government proposed that smart chargepoints must have a function that randomly delays the start time of any load control action. This randomised delay function will help reduce the risk of potential grid stability issues where large numbers of chargepoints switch on or off at the same time. Many respondents were supportive of this approach as a way of helping maintain grid stability, particularly when recovering from power outages. However, many noted concerns around potential negative impacts on user experience and urged Government to consider a consumer override and a short maximum delay time.

Government will be requiring chargepoints to implement this function, following the precedent set by smart metering and the SMETS2, and the approach outlined in PAS 1878. To address concerns about consumer experience, chargepoints will need to have the capability of applying a remotely configurable randomised delay of up to 30 minutes, though by default they will only need to apply a delay of up to 10 minutes. In addition, the chargepoint must be configured in a way that allows the user to override this delay function. This function will not be required when a chargepoint is responding to a response DSR flexibility service (for example, grid balancing services requiring fast response times), or when a randomised delay has already been applied to the intended operation (for example, via a price signal received over the smart meter Home Area Network).

This functionality has already been successfully employed by the GB smart metering system to help mitigate grid stability risks and was also included within PAS 1878. As

the number of smart chargepoints increases, it will be essential to stagger the response of chargepoints in order to maintain grid stability, including when recovering from power outages.

As EV uptake increases, the default randomised delay time may need to be extended to longer than 10 minutes, so as to increase the period of time over which chargepoints come back on to the system and therefore further mitigate grid stability risks. Government will keep this requirement under review, and Phase Two as described in Chapter 3 will consider additional requirements to ensure grid stability.

Default off-peak charging mode

In the consultation, Government proposed mandating a default setting for smart charging. The default off-peak mode would delay charging until a specified off-peak time. The consultation also proposed an alternative approach, where the default mode would instead reduce the rate of charging during peak times. Many respondents supported the inclusion of a default setting, with the default off-peak mode being the preferred approach. Many respondents also raised concerns about defining a specific off-peak time period in legislation, suggesting it could result in a secondary peak in demand.

Based on feedback, we will adopt a more nuanced approach. The Government will mandate that smart chargepoints must prompt users to input a charging schedule during first use. In addition, smart chargepoints must be pre-set to offer users a charging schedule that by default prevents EVs from charging at peak times. During first use, the user must be given the opportunity to edit or remove this setting. The user must also be able to remove or edit this default setting at a later date. Peak times will be defined in legislation as 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm on weekdays. This time window is consistent both with our internal projections of expected EV demand, and with various external studies of EV charging patterns. It has been chosen as a peak time window common to both workplace and domestic charging settings, both of which are within the scope of this legislation. The legislation will allow chargepoint sellers to adopt an alternative approach if a chargepoint is sold with a demand side response service and if the chargepoint is configured to meet the technical requirements of this service. In this scenario, the default requirement need not be implemented, since the user will be charging their EV in a smart way in line with a DSR service.

Government will not mandate that consumers use the smart functionality of chargepoints. Therefore, mandating the setting of a default charging mode will help mitigate the risk that some users do not engage with smart charging offers, and instead charge during peak times. Importantly, mandating that users must be informed of and prompted to edit the pre-set charging schedule during first use of the chargepoint will help mitigate the risk that any default setting causes confusion and negatively impacts the user experience. The consumer override and edit functions will ensure that users can turn off or edit their charging schedule, for example where they wish to sign-up to a DSR service such as a smart tariff. Defining a peak time period in legislation instead of an off-peak period could encourage greater variation in approach amongst chargepoint sellers, thereby helping to mitigate the risk of a default mode requirement causing secondary peaks in demand.

Given that the extent to which consumers modify their behaviour is key to delivering the benefits of these regulations, we will monitor the effectiveness of this approach closely as part of our post-legislation evaluation. The upcoming 2021 Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan will outline the steps that Government is taking to help drive the uptake of smart charging offers, including work to help ensure that consumers have confidence in the smart charging market.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1015285/electric-vehicle-smart-charging-government-response.pdf?fbclid=IwAR13rVJ88zKjxpLaj8uuIw7fWDu9lMC6KquHxrd0Luw0sep05GUa52WQj2Q

Martyn1981

Obviously US based story, but more news on Redwood Industries who are looking to recycle more and more EV battery material.

JB Straubel Plans Circular Supply Chain For Batteries, With Emphasis On USA

Today, the world’s battery manufacturing powerhouses — CATL, Panasonic, LG Energy Solution, and SK Innovation — are mostly found in Asia. JB Straubel, Tesla co-founder and former chief technology officer (CTO) for several years, wants to change that paradigm and bring more battery production to the United States. A big part of his plan involves ramping up the recovery of essential battery raw materials such as lithium, nickel, copper, and cobalt by recycling old batteries. That was the founding principle of his new-ish company, Redwood Materials, but Straubel wants to go even further.

Citing a report by Bloomberg, Tech Crunch says Redwood is scouting locations for a $1 billion factory that will have over a million square feet of floor space. The factory would be dedicated to the production of cathodes and anode foils — the two essential building blocks of a lithium-ion battery. It wants the factory to be capable of supplying raw materials for up to 100 GWh per year — enough for one million electric vehicles — by 2025. And if Straubel is able to make his vision a reality, by 2030 the factory will up its output to 500 GWh, which would be enough to power a whopping 5 million electric cars each year.