Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzz
There's no way in the world that the increased demand on the power grid will go unanticipated and everyone will suddenly be left sitting in the dark with one big bang when everyone plugs in their EV's.  |
My insight into commercial power companies is at least 20 years old and was in only one specific state, so it may not apply in other places. But many in the power business consider it to have three elements: power generation, long distance power distribution, and local service. When power demand increases and all you have to do is turn up the generators you can make more money and the only expense is fuel for the generator. If it's hydroelectric, its free money. But when demand exceeds the capacity of long distance distribution, even if its only for a brief period of time, it cost's a lot to add capacity that won't be used most of the time. So its hard to recoup that expense. That is why most power companies are all about evening out the demand. . . . When they want to raise rates to pay for additional distribution and/or power generation capacity, the ones I knew had to get approval from an elected government commission. Those commissioners were trying to keep their jobs by keeping rates down and often denied requests for rate hikes. It wasn't until a crisis revealed the lack of capacity that they would approve the rate increases needed for more infrastructure.
My point is that I don't find it unthinkable that politicians might delay the infrastructure needed to meet a rapid rise in demand associated with electric vehicles. The problem might not be obvious until a combination of weather and other factors cause a new peak high in demand. But it won't surprise me if it happens in multiple places across the country in coming years.