[R-390] Voltage Reduction Scheme

[rbethman]

On 2/22/2011 2:32 PM, mikea wrote:
> <SNIP>
This is another one of those "poorly" thought out schemes.  There is NO 
infrastructure in place for electric cars.

It would be far easier to go the path of LPG or H2 stations, and less 
upsetting of the remainder of an electrical distribution system that is 
essentially a house of cards waiting to sustain MORE and LARGER failures.
> With hybrid or battery-only vehicles becoming more common, loads from
> charging them are now beginning to be examined by utilities, and they
> don't like what they see. There's an article on p. 23 of the latest ECN
> (http://www.ecnmag.com/) titled "Challenges of charging plug-in hybrid
> electric vehicles" that is worth reading. The author says that every
> vehicle being charged at Level-2 specs adds a load equivalent to 1 to 3
> houses for the duration of the charge. That's going to heat up a pole pig
> PDQ.
The power companies don't look beyond their distant and closed in 
control centers.  They really don't have ANY idea what it is like out 
beyond their "collective" instrumentation.  They should have to work out 
on the lines for a few years, along with a power plant history under 
their belts BEFORE they are even allowed to be an apprentice in a 
control room.
> I've seen the effects of our local powerco changing transformer taps and/or
> doing power-factor correction changes during the day. That was a major
> reason for our getting a 100 KW UPS for our datacenter at work. Before
> the UPS, every little glitch would knock the mainframe and some number of
> servers right down. After the UPS, I get an E-mail message when the powerco
> decides to do the nasty, but things stay up.
<SNIP>
> Car charging is going to make for some really interesting copper losses.
>
> All of this, of course, will make for interesting voltage excursions at the
> wall socket if it isn't kept well under control. Maybe a 3TF7 or other
> voltage regulator will turn out to be useful. ;=)
I don't know where this is all going to go.  I don't see inner cities 
undertaking tearing up the street and sidewalks to put the "charging 
stations" in place at the curbside parking places.  There certainly is 
going to be NO stomach for after construction modifications to parking 
garages.  All the structural engineering has already been done to tackle 
the ability to withstand the weight of the vehicles, worst case - all 
SUVs - that they aren't likely to remotely rebuild to taken on the added 
structural loads of the power transformers and "stations" for charging.

It's gonna be fun, you bet!

Bob - N0DGN