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Comment by wavefunction | Hacker News Reader

The situation is Texas was a complex interplay of a lack of winterization and over-demand on the natural gas network. This electric F-150 appeals to me for a number of reasons but one of them is that I could have powered my house for three days off this truck assuming I purchase and install a cutover switch, rather than have no power for seven days like I did last February.

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Many states are having severe problems with their grids. In California, for example, brownouts happen hundreds of times a year.

A sharp increase in the number of electric vehicles will pose a very heavy strain on the grid at night when they recharge.

You realize that they only charge at night currently because that's when there's lots of extra grid capacity. Right?

I do. That means increased load during the day, which means increased storage requirements at night. We don’t have much reserve at night in most places, especially those dependent on renewables. Germany is learning this the hard way.

Why would charging at night increase loads during the day? Given coal or nuclear, you can’t really ramp them down at night, and even hydro and gas (on demand), you still have to consider the grid’s finite capacity (overloading it during a hot summer during the day can cause fires).

Agreed. Does Texas have a lot of coal and nuclear?

20 and 10 percent respectively. Enough to create a decent surplus capacity for night time charging. Given Texas is a big believer in dynamic electricity rates based on supply and demand, you’d just need to check the night time rates.

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