The distribution limits are almost always an afternoon/evening thing. Early afternoon for warm climates (aircon and cooking dinner) and evening for cold climates (cooking dinner, showers, heating).
Midday for solar injection.
Hence the famous ‘duck curve’.
The distribution network has plenty of capacity overnight; we just need people to wait until about 11PM before we start charging.
At that point we get the question of whether we have the generation.
The point being made seems to be that the distribution network doesn’t need upgrading for AI loads, but does need upgrading if you want to charge EVs at peak times. That’s accurate. Nothing more, nothing less.
The name you are looking for is Residential Time-of-Use. A lot of customers are not aware that their utility company offers Residential Time-of-Use rate plans. Some even offer multiple options, but many do not advertize it. If you are not subscribed to a Residential Time-of-Use plan, you are over paying.
At least in NZ, the law forbids cross-subsidisarion i.e. customers on one plan paying more/less than is proportional to the cost of serving them, averaged across the group.
This means that here, if you are a cookie-cutter use-power-at-peak-times household, it’s going to be cheaper to use a flat 24hour plan than a ToU plan, because the peak rate will be higher than the 24UC rate.
If you have an EV, you’ll almost certainly be better off on a peak/off-peak plan.
Note that for a while, plans where you pay the current wholesale spot price were called ToU and those can be painful to be on.
Yes, but…
The distribution limits are almost always an afternoon/evening thing. Early afternoon for warm climates (aircon and cooking dinner) and evening for cold climates (cooking dinner, showers, heating).
Midday for solar injection.
Hence the famous ‘duck curve’.
The distribution network has plenty of capacity overnight; we just need people to wait until about 11PM before we start charging.
At that point we get the question of whether we have the generation.
yep. at some point we’re gonna realize that a modicum of storage will smooth out so many issues.
Getting the energy to/from the storage can still be a big issue. You potentially even end up double-storing it.
ok let’s just peg technology as done and live with the same buildout we have, now, forever and ever amen.
?!
funny how easy it is to get power companies to hook up data centers but god for fucking bid we improve the grid to deal with these problems today
When did I ever say that?
The point being made seems to be that the distribution network doesn’t need upgrading for AI loads, but does need upgrading if you want to charge EVs at peak times. That’s accurate. Nothing more, nothing less.
Distribution network != the grid.
Pretty simple for most EVs to set a schedule I’d think. My Tesla allows that so I avoid peak
Even my 12 year old plug in hybrid lets me set a charging schedule. I pay the same rate 24/7 so it charges as soon as it gets plugged in.
You might be able to pay less if you move to a time of use plan.
The name you are looking for is Residential Time-of-Use. A lot of customers are not aware that their utility company offers Residential Time-of-Use rate plans. Some even offer multiple options, but many do not advertize it. If you are not subscribed to a Residential Time-of-Use plan, you are over paying.
That depends on how the plans are set.
At least in NZ, the law forbids cross-subsidisarion i.e. customers on one plan paying more/less than is proportional to the cost of serving them, averaged across the group.
This means that here, if you are a cookie-cutter use-power-at-peak-times household, it’s going to be cheaper to use a flat 24hour plan than a ToU plan, because the peak rate will be higher than the 24UC rate.
If you have an EV, you’ll almost certainly be better off on a peak/off-peak plan.
Note that for a while, plans where you pay the current wholesale spot price were called ToU and those can be painful to be on.