Diesel & petrol alternatives? Your thoughts please

DT, that’s not the opinion of the national grid who seem to have studied the topic, and made it the number one myth busted on their own FAQ on EVs.

https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/journey-to-net-zero/5-myths-about-electric-vehicles-busted

 That's not quite what a mate of mine says .... he works with high voltage electrickery distribution .... 

I think these-‘Frank down the pub’ types are not thinking it thru at all. We have times now when everyone wants Lekky at the same time. . .Winter mornings, tea times, dinner times, popular TV programmes & events, Christmas. These are all high demand times, I’m convinced the companies that run the national grid are a lot smarter than Frank down the pub & naysayers👍🏻

You will have to forgive me for accepting the public statement of fact published by the organisation whose function it is (and has been for years) to manage the long term capacity of a critical national infrastructure, over the musings of a person of unsubstantiated credibility who may not know the 1st thing about the topic. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

There is nothing like an unbiased opinion from a stakeholder .... ever

A rather condescending reply from you .... this is the musings of said person. Would you like copy of his indentures?

National grid have no problem delivering their end of the bargain as they have capacity to spare. Mainly due to diminished commercial demand and, in some areas, more energy efficient domestic usage. We on the other hand have capacity where we don't need it (at the moment). Large industrial sites and estates have huge capacity but no one to use it. Housing estates, like ours, have benefited from energy efficiencies but out weighed by the greater number of power using devices. On the circuit my house is fed via has a current rating of at the largest section of 360A. As the circuit moves further away from the substation the cross section of the cable reduces and so the rating. The average domestic ev charger will charge at 7kW which approximates to 30A. The number of properties connected is roughly 90. If only 50% of those connect an ev for charging its easy to see the problem. We run out of capacity on nearly every single low voltage circuit with domestic properties connected. Coordinated charging/discharge is a possible solution, but how that is achieved is an unsolved problem at the moment. There are various proposals on the table involving comms with the cars directly or via smart meters.

See - now that is more helpful, actual constructive thought process, and is useful in so far as identifies the potential problems at the local DNO level. But is also acknowledging the validity of the information from national grid. So it actually IS what your mate said, but with local caveats. 

The problem I have with "thats not quite what a mate of mine said" is it's a blanket statement refuting the credibility of the national grid statement, which he didn't do. He agreed with the national grid. But he has a valid point from a different perspective which needs attention. 

If you had chosen to post the musings verbatim to start with, we could have had an open dialogue, but refutation without evidence is pointless. 

Continuing  from previous post ... what happens when your other half has an EV & it needs charging & then children each need their car charging? Will the 60A or 100A supply fuse support 4 cars? And then when your neighbours all want 2/3/4/ or cars charging will the supplies to your street support them all? You can't move for cars on our estate at the weekend when most people are at home.

I love the idea of leccy cars but I don't believe they are the only answer to our problems. I can't see us getting very far with leccy HGVs or planes