TECHNOLOGY When you look at it this way, using


electric cars to feed power back into the grid at peak times makes a lot of sense. The batteries in electric cars provide storage for the grid which, in turn, gives it greater flexibility. They also increase capacity at peak times. There are a lot of obstacles to introducing such a scheme though.


Currently, charging points for electric vehicles are configured to


charge


that commuters drive to work in their electric vehicles, plug them in to charge up while they are at the office, drive them home and then plug them in again. However, while they are at home they are discharging electricity from their batteries back into the national grid.


T


This may seem like a rather silly idea. No battery is 100% efficient;


they generate heat when they are


both charging and discharging. This means that they would use more electricity charging up than they would release back into the grid, so what is the point? The answer lies in three fundamental problems facing the electricity generating industry.


The first problem is having enough capacity to meet peak demand. If


the grid cannot generate enough


electricity to meet that demand, electricity use has to be rationed – effectively the lights go out. The next is a lack of flexibility. A power station pretty much either produces electricity or it doesn’t. Yes, it is possible to shut down one turbine in a power station to reduce the amount of electricity it is generating, but it is a slow process and firing it up again takes longer still. It is not possible to reduce the amount of electricity being generated in the grid during the day when demand is low and then ramp it up again in the evening when demand peaks. The final problem is that the grid has nowhere to store the electricity it generates until it is needed.


An easier alternative might be to incentivise home- owners to install home batteries, charge them with cheap electricity during the day and feed it back into the grid at times of peak demand. Or they could follow the Australian government’s example and invest in a mega-battery that is an integral part of the National Grid. Whatever happens, this kind of lateral thinking will be essential as we transition to a low carbon future over the coming decades. If


the


government does not adopt these ideas, they face a stark choice between building more power stations that burn fossil fuels or the very real possibility that the lights will go out.


By Graham Iek 24 When responding to adverts please mention the ‘North Devon Insight’


batteries, not discharge them. Turning them into feed-in points for the National Grid would require a huge amount of investment. However, the number of charging points around the country is set to increase dramatically over the next decade as more and more new cars become either plug-in hybrids or


he government is investing millions of pounds to fund research into how electric cars could supply power to the national grid. The idea is


fully electric. It the decision was made now to adopt such a scheme, all new charging points installed could double up as feed-in points.


Then there is the matter of offering an incentive to car owners to participate in


the scheme. Should the


government offer a feed in tariff, as they presently do with solar panels? Alternatively, they could do some- thing as simple as offering free off-peak electricity to drivers in exchange for feeding power back into the grid at peak times. Of course, then you would have the problem of “selfish” drivers who charge up their cars with free electricity but don’t feed any back into the grid. There is a bigger problem too. Most electric cars are range limited – they can typically only travel 80 miles on a charge. If they are feeding most of their battery charge back into the grid in the evening, will they have enough left to get to work the following morning?


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48