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Comment by throwaway3306a | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, but reacting with the naive assumption that there is never any backup generator is just the other extreme.

I don’t think these are equivalent. You might get special cases such as a charging station in the outback of Australia where this is necessary but it’s not like it’s a standard option on any install.

But did anybody claim that? The OP said "to handle spikes". That already tells it's an unusual solution for unusual problems by itself.

The original comment was:

> Tesla uses local diesel generators to handle spikes.

This suggests that it is a standard solution for a reasonably common problem for Tesla. Common enough that it is seen as the accepted solution by the company.

The only instance I have ever seen of this was an attempt as anti-EV misinformation which was debunked. It is not a common solution at all.

It would definitely be a viable solution in some places and I am not against it, but for some reason the anti-EV lot want to push a narrative that it is common when it is not.

Spikes in grids are not common in any way. But if they are happening at a particular location then yes, a generator is a standard solution for everyone, not just Tesla. There are not many ways to handle it, it's basically either a battery (very expensive and probably too small capacity and output current), a generator or shutting down.

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