The problem is that Toronto Hydro has no way of knowing which neighbourhoods could be affected.
"We need an effective way to know where all of these electric vehicles are," he said. "We just want to know where these are landing so we can plan."
In addition to making changes to the distribution grid, utilities could also use other means to prevent electric vehicles from charging during periods of peak electricity usage, such as:
- Offering a lower rate very late at night to make electric car owners charge their vehicles later than they do now.
- Using technology to directly control when certain vehicles are charging.
Clairman estimates that there are currently about 1400 to 1500 electric vehicles in Ontario, about half of them in the Greater Toronto Area.
"There's no problem at this point," she said, adding that she doesn't think utilities are very concerned at the moment.
She acknowledged that electric vehicles may be a local concern in some municipalities where the transformers weren't built to accommodate modern power loads.
"Certainly, there'll be issues to manage the grid," she said, "but it certainly can be managed if we learn as we grow."
No comments:
Post a Comment