Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

Exiled_Tyke said:

JKenH said:

silverwhistle said:

michaels said:

If current gas prices are maintained I can see suppliers diverting EVs to the US once they have reached the minimum quotas in other markets because of the level of demand (and profitability).  I suspect the wow of what the F150 lightening can do (plus those gas prices) is really gong to be a game changer.  I wonder what speed of transition the US grid can cope with?

I also wonder what synergy can be obtained there with EVs and domestic solar on generally larger roofs. Higher fuel costs must be concentrating a few minds, and if both PV and EV are acquired at the same time the impact on their grid may be a lot less. In the UK, National Grid have said they are not too concerned about the overall load from EVs, although certainly some local grid reinforcement may be needed, particularly to cope with charging hubs.

I think the guy at National Grid knows he will have moved on before the proverbial hits the fan. He certainly wouldn’t be in his job now if he said the grid can’t cope. The secret of success is to say what people want to hear,  collect the big salary, and move on before the chickens come home to roost. 

I presume you are talking about my good friend David Wright? I'll pass on your good wishes!

That’s handy having a line to the man at the top. I can’t recall if he was the chappy who said it will be alright in the night or if it was someone else.

JKenH

1961Nick said:

JKenH said:

I had Northern Powergrid out yesterday to investigate the over voltage at my house. After much sucking through teeth and looking at the transformer on the pole in the field the engineer decided to pass it on to someone else. He did seem to agree that the problem possibly was related to too much solar PV locally (5 houses with it ) so I do have my worries that our local network will be able to cope once we all have electric cars and heating. I saw 259.1 volts at the inverter on Wednesday. 

That's 6.1v more than they're allowed so something should be done fairly quickly.

Can you tell how many houses are on that transformer that don't have pv?

Unfortunately I don’t know and I don’t know the location of all the transformers around the village to make a guess. When the NPG guy was here at 9.30am he was only seeing 251.8 when my inverter was showing 254.5. It did go up to 257.6 while he was sitting in his van but he didn’t retest the supply. The voltage seems to go up as the sun gets higher.

1961Nick

JKenH said:

1961Nick said:

JKenH said:

I had Northern Powergrid out yesterday to investigate the over voltage at my house. After much sucking through teeth and looking at the transformer on the pole in the field the engineer decided to pass it on to someone else. He did seem to agree that the problem possibly was related to too much solar PV locally (5 houses with it ) so I do have my worries that our local network will be able to cope once we all have electric cars and heating. I saw 259.1 volts at the inverter on Wednesday. 

That's 6.1v more than they're allowed so something should be done fairly quickly.

Can you tell how many houses are on that transformer that don't have pv?

Unfortunately I don’t know and I don’t know the location of all the transformers around the village to make a guess. When the NPG guy was here at 9.30am he was only seeing 251.8 when my inverter was showing 254.5. It did go up to 257.6 while he was sitting in his van but he didn’t retest the supply. The voltage seems to go up as the sun gets higher.

You could do with using a multi meter to get an accurate reading from your supply.

Is the high voltage causing your inverter to shutdown?

JKenH

1961Nick said:

JKenH said:

1961Nick said:

JKenH said:

I had Northern Powergrid out yesterday to investigate the over voltage at my house. After much sucking through teeth and looking at the transformer on the pole in the field the engineer decided to pass it on to someone else. He did seem to agree that the problem possibly was related to too much solar PV locally (5 houses with it ) so I do have my worries that our local network will be able to cope once we all have electric cars and heating. I saw 259.1 volts at the inverter on Wednesday. 

That's 6.1v more than they're allowed so something should be done fairly quickly.

Can you tell how many houses are on that transformer that don't have pv?

Unfortunately I don’t know and I don’t know the location of all the transformers around the village to make a guess. When the NPG guy was here at 9.30am he was only seeing 251.8 when my inverter was showing 254.5. It did go up to 257.6 while he was sitting in his van but he didn’t retest the supply. The voltage seems to go up as the sun gets higher.

You could do with using a multi meter to get an accurate reading from your supply.

Is the high voltage causing your inverter to shutdown?

Yes, but just one of them, regularly. I did start a separate thread  on the inverters shutting down 2 or 3 weeks ago. Mart gave me some helpful advice. 

I might electrocute myself if I poke about.

I am continuing this on the over-voltage thread. Above posts have been copied to there 

silverwhistle

JKenH said:

I think the guy at National Grid knows he will have moved on before the proverbial hits the fan. He certainly wouldn’t be in his job now if he said the grid can’t cope. The secret of success is to say what people want to hear,  collect the big salary, and move on before the chickens come home to roost. 

You've been listening to too much Boris Johnson; it would render anybody cynical. No doubt the grid tomorrow couldn't cope if we all changed overnight, but I don't think there was any concern in the longer term. Again unlike politicians there is long term and detailed planning taking place so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

JKenH

Exiled_Tyke said:

JKenH said:

silverwhistle said:

michaels said:

If current gas prices are maintained I can see suppliers diverting EVs to the US once they have reached the minimum quotas in other markets because of the level of demand (and profitability).  I suspect the wow of what the F150 lightening can do (plus those gas prices) is really gong to be a game changer.  I wonder what speed of transition the US grid can cope with?

I also wonder what synergy can be obtained there with EVs and domestic solar on generally larger roofs. Higher fuel costs must be concentrating a few minds, and if both PV and EV are acquired at the same time the impact on their grid may be a lot less. In the UK, National Grid have said they are not too concerned about the overall load from EVs, although certainly some local grid reinforcement may be needed, particularly to cope with charging hubs.

I think the guy at National Grid knows he will have moved on before the proverbial hits the fan. He certainly wouldn’t be in his job now if he said the grid can’t cope. The secret of success is to say what people want to hear,  collect the big salary, and move on before the chickens come home to roost. 

I presume you are talking about my good friend David Wright? I'll pass on your good wishes!

No, I looked it up and it was Graeme Cooper, Transport Decarbonisation Director who I had in mind. 

https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/journey-to-net-zero-stories/can-grid-cope-extra-demand-electric-cars

And he has now moved on to another post in National Grid.

Ectophile

The National Grid - the people who own the big pylons that snake across the countryside - aren't worried about us getting electric cars or heat pumps.  We used to have lots of heavy industry in this country, using vast amounts of energy.  That's all gone now.  So the grid has capacity to spare.  The problems will come in the local networks.  The 11kV or 400/230V bits.  And they are owned by the DNOs.  It'll be the street supply from the local transformer to your home that fails, not the grid.

To the OP: it's not the DNO's problem if the supply, as measured by the inverter, goes over 253V.  They only care abount the voltage at the electricity meter.  If that stays in range, then it's your wiring that needs to be fixed.

But the supply voltage keeps going up and down, then it really needs logging over an extended period of several days.  There is equipment that can do that.

markin

This the Future people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTsUGxvH80Q

EricMears

From the early part of the video,  it's quoted at 1.2 kW   (presumably 1.2kWp ?).

At a very rough guess,  that's going to add around 3 miles of range for every hour of use !

I don't think I'll be getting a similar product.

QrizB

markin said:

This the Future people.

and

EricMears said:

From the early part of the video,  it's quoted at 1.2 kW   (presumably 1.2kWp ?).
At a very rough guess,  that's going to add around 3 miles of range for every hour of use !

In the SW deserts of the USA, PVGIS thinks an unshaded 1.2kWp horizontal array is worth 1800kWh/yr. That's 5kWh per day, on average.

In Aberdeen it's less than half that ...