Quote:
Originally Posted by flamesfever
The money flows where it will get the best return, and Canada has become one of the worst places to invest with all the rules and regulations, government inefficiency, increase in taxation, problems with FN people, etc.
Where is the money going to come from to increase our grid, to supply the EVs? If you say the government, where are they going to get the money? What will be the impact on the power cost?
IMO there are many people these days that think the Government will look after us and solve all our problems, when in fact it's we the people, if given the right incentive and opportunity, will provide the ways and means to do what is required.
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In a lot of ways these aren't really problems, and could be quite the opportunity.
Smart charging is already readily available and easy. When loads are low (at night), your car charges, when loads are high, your car doesn't. This can actually help even out base load on the grid which does a few things:
1) balancing the grid helps make it more stable, lower variances make running things more efficient, so if car charging ramps up over night as power usage drops as we go to sleep, that can have a have a smoothing effect on demand and prices. Smooth demand results in better operation and lower prices.
2) For the most part people already have sufficient service in their homes to add a level 2 charger. It's probably not feasible to be doing laundry, cooking dinner while the kids are playing xbox, and charging your car all at the same time, but again, it's a matter of balancing that load/demand, which is already pretty trivial
3) Adding reliable base demand (charging cars at night), can/will incentivize adding base generation to the grid. Alberta's grid is pretty tight on base load generation right now, if there were signals that base load demand was going to increase and be relatively stable, then the decision to add base generation (likely NG fired) becomes a lot more straight forward
I understand not everyone has a great understanding of the power grid (I'm not an expert, but I do dabble), and what can/will be done to manage the transition to EV's but it's worth remembering that the people who's job it is to know these things, have thought of them too and are working on them.
Power companies (generators, distributors, and retailers) are the ones that will pay up to go forward with this transition because it's an opportunity for them to grow.
Ultimately that means the end users will pay for what they want/need, but as I said, a more stable demand = a more stable market = lower prices for everyone.
There are certainly ways this could go sideways, but there is also a big opportunity here for everyone, which means pretty big incentives to get it right.