Re: Reading the Meter
"any number of EVs in one street will (as grid architecture is at the mo') destabilise or even break the grid" Citations welcome, preferably with better quantitative evidence than "any number ... break the grid". I know that kind of info doesn't fit in a Twit or even a comment here at El Reg, so here's one someone else in the industry prepared earlier... others may well be available:
Sorry, AC, I'm not messing around with citations. I've worked for one of Europe's largest electricity supplier and distributors, I've participated in conferences at the Royal Society and across my entire industry I'm sure you've got experience in areas I haven't, but I'm not calling you to prove those.
What is more, there are few (if any) formal citations BECAUSE THE BLOODY WORK HASN'T BEEN DONE. That's right. Bunglement have all but committed us to an EV future, without doing ANY ADEQUATE systems analysis and modelling. I've sat in meetings with industry and government representatives discussing this very point, everybody accepts that systems modelling would be a great idea. But nobody will do it. Not just the EVs, all the renewable power stuff, electrification of rail, of heating, growing demands for data centre and home IT and entertainment use.
If nobody will fund the work, it won't be done. Then there will be no citations. Now, because there are no citations, does that mean that the idea I'm putting forward is shite? Perhaps. But Occam's razor would suggest that the lack of citations is due to the lack of research funding.