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Comment by chasd00 | Hacker News Reader

Everyone likes to point and laugh when a state has grid problems. I live in Texas and so have been in the receiving end a lot.

The article is mostly about the prep work and conservation going on now to deal with the heat wave expected over the coming week. It all seems reasonable to me, exceptional circumstances need exceptional prep work and action.

In the larger scheme I think city planners are going to have to start accounting for weather events outside of the typical boundaries as more and more effects of climate change take hold.

I’m not going to point and laugh at CA, I hope you guys make it through with minimal interruptions.

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It's okay to point and laugh here, because one week they're banning non-electric vehicles and the next they're saying people shouldn't charge their electric vehicles due to insufficient electricity.

At least they voted to keep their nuclear plant on for another 5 years.

There's nothing contradictory there. The fact that EV charging can be easily time-shifted is an enormous benefit. There are few things as beneficial to the grid as EVs will be.

> EV charging can be easily time-shifted

If, and only if, you live in a place that provides you with the ability to overnight charge. So that probably excludes a vast majority of Californians who live in apartments or condos.

Charging cables are also pretty popular with thieves, since they contain a lot of copper and provide no inherent theft prevention, another minus for apartment/condo dwellers.

All of those locations will soon have EV chargers. People will demand them as EVs become mass market. My own apartment building has five EV chargers. Destination chargers will be common too.

This will happen slowly at first, but exponentially increase.

And the inverse is true, too: as gas vehicles start to decline, gas stations will slowly start to decline, and then more and more quickly close. People will start to notice it's less convenient to find a gas station, and prices are less competitive.

This will all lead to a nice positive feedback loop for EVs and a negative feedback loop for gas cars.

The point of my comment, taken in the context of the parent comment, is that time shifting is not automatic nor easy with the move to electric cars. It requires charging at home, overnight, to do. And I'm glad your apartment building has chargers - no apartment buildings have them in my hometown.

> This will happen slowly at first, but exponentially increase.

A vast majority, in my experience, of apartment building owners barely provide basic amenities to their tenants... I'm not as optimistic as you on this growth, especially when locations with fast chargers (i.e. gas station equivalents) will exist.

Did you read the article? Because I was surprised to see the major deficiencies they are worried about are at night.

When are you advocating people charge their cars again?

4-9 PM extends to about an hour after sunset this time of year. I suppose it technically involves a bit of night, but that does not overlap at all with the normal electric car charging window (midnight to 6 AM).

My car starts charging at 10:00 PM on weekdays. I don't have a time of use plan, but I like giving the garage a chance to cool down a bit and I might as well have it charge later when I'm not putting as much load trying to cool off the house for the evening.

Last night I plugged it in around 8:30 PM. It started charging at 10:00 PM. It spent ~2.5 hours charging, finishing up its charge around 12:30 PM. It pulled ~6kWh of energy over those two hours, so it was charging at about 25A of power. Then about 15 minutes before I leave in the mornings, it preconditions the car and battery to the temperature I want using the home's energy. Its nice always getting in a comfortable car every morning regardless of how hot or cold it is.

I could have shifted this even a few hours later and it still would have easily met my needs. I could of had my car start charging at 4:00 AM and it would have hit my target charge by 6:30.

Actually, my math was wrong on that. 6,000Wh / 2.5h = 2,400W / 240V = 10A.

So electric vehicles might end up being part of the solution here. The new ones are starting to come with v2g.

They are banning new ICE cars 13 years from now.

It is much easier to point and laugh when just last week they were banning gas cars by 2035, and here they are telling people not to charge their EV during outages.

They know very well what they are doing: they don’t want you using any personal transportation. You’re laughing your way to the grave.

I've been laughing my way to the grave for a long time. Laughter really is the best medicine, especially when you live in a dysfunctional society.

And since you're headed to the grave regardless of what you do, you might as well laugh. :)

"Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true."

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