A. The EPA has its own police force to deal with filthy criminals like you.
Posted on 08/10/2023 6:32:43 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Hint: It’s not fossil fuels. It’s not nuclear power. It’s not even wind or solar, although the state will undoubtedly keep expanding both.
The answer? California’s largest electric utility PG&E wants to suck the batteries of electric-vehicle owners plugged into charging stations to stabilize the grid during unstable periods. The Ford F-150 already allows for bidirectional charging, but that was sold as a benefit to the owner as a kind of independent generator for households during blackouts. PG&E wants to use it to commandeer all EV batteries and use their power to prevent grid collapse:
It’s been said before, California’s power grid will have to expand in order to meet the demand for more energy. PG&E’s CEO Patricia Poppe has come up with an “unconventional” idea, using electric cars to send excess power back to the grid to prevent blackouts. …
Lawmakers in Sacramento are helping to move things along. For example, Senate Bill 233 would make bi-directional charging mandatory for all new electric vehicles.
Now the question is how quickly can that electrical connection be up and running in any ordinary home to make vehicle-to-grid a reality.
Does anyone see the problem here? California’s power grid is destabilizing for a number of reasons, mainly from nonsensical and hypocritical public policies. Chief among those are (a) a refusal to use scalable power sources (oil, gas, coal, nuclear) for demand at current levels, and (b) forcing Californians to transfer their vehicles to the grid rather than use gasoline for independent power, thus escalating demand on the grid dramatically.
This proposal doesn’t solve either of those problems. It instead creates a kind of three-card Monty with the grid — shifting power to the vehicles, and then pulling it back when the state decides to apply it elsewhere. It’s only an illusion of a solution; no additional power gets created. PG&E and the state would simply confiscate that power for their own uses as they see fit. Technically, the grid would operate more efficiently if it never charged the EVs at all, considering the inevitable power losses that would take place in regional “bidirectional charging.”
It’s the ultimate in authoritarian redistribution — no real production, and lots of opportunity for losses and scarcity rationing.
And what does that mean for car owners? PG&E argues that cars are parked 95% of the time, a rationalization for energy seizure which may be true but is irrelevant. The issue for car owners is having the car function the (arguable) 5% of the time they need to travel — to work, school, social functions, and commerce.
What happens when car owners wake up in the morning to go to work to find that their car has been drained overnight to “stabilize the grid”? What happens when they all plug them in at the same time to get them charged enough to go to work? Wouldn’t that sudden demand destabilize the grid?
Nor is that the only issue for car owners in this new proposal. Unlike gas tanks, which can last for decades, batteries have a finite number of charge/discharge cycles before they begin to fail. Bloomberg noted that concern near the end of their otherwise sunny report on this idea:
Utilities will need to offer drivers incentives, such as paying them for the kilowatt hours they contribute. One study estimates ratepayers could save as much as $1 billion a year from using the technology.
However, some EV owners have reservations about the potential impacts on their car battery’s lifespan, while concerns linger about the installation adding an estimated $3,700 to an EV’s cost, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln? This proposal would cost consumers more, shorten the lives of their already-too-expensive vehicles, with the only benefit to consumers being a refund for power they bought to charge the car the first time — which they would have to spend again to charge it after PG&E drains it. I’d bet that consumers won’t even get a full refund for that power use, and that PG&E ends up profiting from the charge/discharge/recharge cycle. Amazingly, neither Bloomberg nor ABC7 even thinks about that issue, let alone investigates it to any extent at all. Bloomberg just passes along the happy talk about A Billion Dollars In Savings!! without wondering how consumers will use their cars without buying the same power twice with those “savings” — and likely more.
There’s nothing wrong with owning an EV if you choose to do so. This, however, isn’t a choice. California is forcing its citizens into EVs, mandating the end of gasoline-powered personal vehicle sales in the next decade, and is already planning to exploit its monopoly on vehicle energy for its own ends. This proposal in particular exploits that monopoly to cover up the insane and destructive energy policies of the Democrat government monopoly in Sacramento. Internal combustion vehicles and their decentralized, independent power sourcing are still the best choice for freedom — which is why California Democrats want to eradicate them.
It would almost make sense with ICE and turn the cars into generators. (but then get paid for the electricity)
Unbelievable. I mean, I don’t doubt they think they have the right to do this. Its just unbelievavle they think this is acceptable.
All of your EVs belong to US!
...for the common good, you know.
So they are creating a sucky system that also blows.
-PJ
“batteries have a finite number of charge/discharge cycles before they begin to fail.”
THAT sucks.
I hate batteries.
How many cycles does a capacitor experience?
No. It’s not the Bee. There has been a pilot program for this in California for a while. I don’t know if it’s going to be voluntary ... at first.
Do they suck down plugged in batteries during rolling blackouts in the sector blacked out?
-PJ
A. The EPA has its own police force to deal with filthy criminals like you.
Back about 1985 I allowed the power company to shut off my home air conditioner during power problems. It was supposed to be for a limited time only. I If I recall, it was a radio operated system and could be turned off fifteen minutes per hour. They’d send out a signal to turn off the power. Almost right away, they were turning my air off for three and four hours at a time. I called to complain about the times that were in excess of the agreed amount. A snippy woman told me they would turn it off for as long as they wanted. I yanked the system out. (The issue was they didn’t want to pay a premium to buy power off the grid.)
In Florida, you can’t live in modern house without air conditioning. I now live in a mobile home, and you can’t spend even an hour in it if the air isn’t on. I keep several window units just in case and for my rental mobile homes. (Incidentally. The way I rebuild them they’re wonderful to live in and I own them all outright. Fluck the bank and those people who are trying to impress the Joneses.)
I can’t imagine a vehicle being tied to an owner they don’t want leaving the state right? They surely wouldn’t drain their battery back to the grid right?
That would never happen.
.
You can’t tell the EV people.
Their self worth and identity is tied to EVs.
They’re holding off on the Mileage Tax and huge Trade-in Fees, too.
It will continue until citizens get fed up with this cr*p and directly and personally show them the error of assuming the gov has this authoritarian power. They have it only until the citizens make them stop.
Why limit it to cars. If your phone is plugged into the wall outlet make the phone feed the state grid !
Yeah that 3.8 volt iPhone battery will really give the grid a jolt!
There are several people here pushing EVs on to the rest of us. I hope they’re happy now that they’re seeing where this crap all leads.
They could try and tap into megan rabidho’s perpetually regenerating ego !
( just irritated cuz just saw her in a brand new commercial and I had hoped after she lost the USA team that match she would just go away and hide her face and stay off my damn tv. It would be one thing if I knew her mug would be coming in the next commercial, but this blindsided by inner and outer mega ugly is getting really old . ok. Rant off )
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