electric car use, thinktank warns
Green Alliance says simultaneous charging
could potentially damage electronic equipment
unless action is taken by 2020.-Adam Vaughan.
The UK’s energy networks are not ready for a
surge in electric cars and solar panels that is
coming within the next few years, according to
a report.
Clusters of the battery powered cars could
result in 1% of the UK experiencing unplanned
drops in voltage – potentially damaging
electronic equipment – without action by 2020,
the Green Alliance said.
The thinktank warned that as few as six
electric vehicles located near one another,
most likely in an affluent neighbourhood,
could lead to such “brownouts”.
Charging one car requires a similar amount of
electricity as a typical home uses in three days,
and simultaneous demand at a local level
could damage networks without costly
reinforcements.
Ministers also recently called on electric car
owners to ensure they are not charging at
times of peak energy demand.
Network operators want
people to use smart
chargers, which can defer
when cars are topped up,
but most of the 12,000-
plus charging points in
the UK are “dumb”, with
smart technology largely
only used in pilot projects.
The Green Alliance said that by 2025 up to
700,000 electricity users could suffer blackouts
due to a lack of non-smart chargers.
“The government should say all chargers from
now on must be smart. Once they’re in, it’s
very expensive to retrofit them,” said Dustin
Benton, the author of the report.
Distribution network operators, who connect
the national grid at a local level to homes and
businesses, fear clustering of electric cars, but
say such hotspots have not yet become a
serious problem for their infrastructure.
However, the Green Alliance noted that
electric car sales were up 56% last year on 2015
figures, and said falling costs would drive a
rapid uptake.
The thinktank predicted a similar growth in
the next few years in the installation of solar
panels, which are already disrupting the
energy system . Falling solar power prices mean
that by 2020 it will make economic sense for
commercial building owners to install solar
even without subsidies, the report said.
The combination of solar and household
batteries such as Tesla’s Powerwall could
result in houses being able to supply their own
electricity independently for months at a time
by 2025, it added.
While 850,000 homes in
the UK have solar panels,
few have installed
batteries – but that could
change with products
launched by one of the
big six energy companies. E.ON said on
Wednesday that it would begin selling battery
and solar packages from £7,500 , arguing the
combination of the two would elevate solar “to
the next level”.
The Green Alliance said it thought electric cars
and solar would soon be viable without
subsidy, which showed the government would
no longer be able constrain them – meaning it
was vital action was taken now to manage
their impact.
This impact could include damage to power
networks from electric car charging or solar
unable to connect to the grid because of
bottlenecks. That in turn could trigger
“emergency policymaking”, which Benton said
would be bad for investment.
The thinktank made several recommendations,
including a proposal for a new independent
system designer, separate from National Grid,
to manage the integration of small-scale
energy into the wider electricity supply
network. “We need to actively govern how we
use these technologies,” said Benton.
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