Power cuts - Shut off EV chargers first?

[rscott]

NMNeil said:

If you want a practical way of cutting power consumption how about turning off every alternate street light in built up areas and motorways?
You could reduce the UK's energy consumption by around 10% overnight.
https://www.altitudeservices.co.uk/news-and-articl...
If you question the biased article (They want to sell stuff), perhaps something more plausible.
https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/highways/major-...

Where does that 10% figure come from - the first article clearly says that streetlights account for 4% of the UK’s lighting electricity bill.

Oh and the idea of turning off alternate lights has been considered by some councils and ruled out - https://www.essexhighways.org/roads-and-pavements/...
Instead, they switch most lights off completely between 1am and 5am, Tuesday to Sunday.

[Evanivitch]

NMNeil said:

If you want a practical way of cutting power consumption how about turning off every alternate street light in built up areas and motorways?
You could reduce the UK's energy consumption by around 10% overnight.
https://www.altitudeservices.co.uk/news-and-articl...
If you question the biased article (They want to sell stuff), perhaps something more plausible.
https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/highways/major-...

Whilst this may have been true prior to LED streetlights, I doubt it's the case today.

[TheRainMaker]

The street lights around us are already turned off at 1am and turned back on at 5am, that will stuff the idea of everyone using them to charge over night.

I’m guessing they just kill the power to them at the whole lot go off exactly at the same time.

[BAMoFo]

Evanivitch said:

BAMoFo said:

They may or may not be able to turn it off, but if people are all on Smart Meters it wouldn't be beyond the wit of man to create an algorithm that can determine when an EV is being charged on a granny plug. Even easier on a home charger that is connected to the internet.

I think you overestimate how smart the current smart meters are...

Perhaps I am, and if that is the case the idea of installing them without the capability to be reconfigured to future proof them wasn't particularly smart. I have the first generation gas and electric meters fitted to my garage / annexe and they admittedly seem to be pretty dumb because meter readings still have to be submitted for them.

Edited by BAMoFo on Sunday 7th August 10:03

[coetzeeh]

NMNeil said:

If you want a practical way of cutting power consumption how about turning off every alternate street light in built up areas and motorways?
You could reduce the UK's energy consumption by around 10% overnight.
https://www.altitudeservices.co.uk/news-and-articl...
If you question the biased article (They want to sell stuff), perhaps something more plausible.
https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/highways/major-...

Street lamps are unmetered, and are controlled via group switching. So you can switch batches of lights but not individual lamps, or as you suggested, every second lamp - unfortunately.

[Evanivitch]

BAMoFo said:

Perhaps I am, and if that is the case the idea of installing them without the capability to be reconfigured to future proof them wasn't particularly smart. I have the first generation gas and electric meters fitted to my garage / annexe and they admittedly seem to be pretty dumb because meter readings still have to be submitted for them.

Edited by BAMoFo on Sunday 7th August 10:03

SMETS1 are indeed incredibly dumb.

It's very difficult to make something tamper-proof (i.e. not providing false readings) and reconfigurable. They're somewhat opposing design constraints.

[delta0]

OP clearly missed that most EV charging happens overnight when demand is extremely low. Maybe we should send all the fuel to be burnt to make electricity? That would actually make a difference to peak energy supplies but of course is equally ridiculous of a suggestion.

Edited by delta0 on Monday 8th August 20:23