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Do electric cars paralyze the power grid? Providers warn of heavy workloads

2021-11-25T08:30:01.329Z


Hundreds of thousands of people apply for a charging station at home so that e-cars can be charged quickly. But that affects the power grid.


Hundreds of thousands of people apply for a charging station at home so that e-cars can be charged quickly.

But that affects the power grid.

Kassel - from year to year more and more electric cars are driving on Germany's roads - and the number is increasing.

But as soon as the vehicle has to be charged, the first problems come because: Many people do not have the option of charging their e-car at home in a short time and in some cities charging stations are so far only rarely represented.

In Kassel, a public charging station caused trouble for e-car drivers: It was out of order for weeks.

However, in order to install a high-performance charging station at home, consumers need the permission of the energy supplier.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports on this.

However, the number for residential units is clearly reduced.

In some cases only two or three charging stations are possible, although several are needed.

High load on the power grid: More and more e-cars on the streets

The consequences of electrification through millions of e-cars are a challenge for the power grid - but so far it has withstood the load. According to the Federal Network Agency, there have also been fewer power outages in recent years. However, since more and more people will have to charge their vehicles in the future, the power grid in Germany could be under enormous strain. "Particularly in the evening hours, a rapid ramp-up of electromobility could partially overload the local distribution network if many vehicles are to be charged at the same time," said the authority.

In spite of everything, politics is directing the automotive industry more and more in the direction of electromobility.

In their talks, the SPD, Greens and FDP have already agreed to only allow e-cars before 2035 in order to save CO₂ emissions.

"We want to make Germany the lead market for electromobility and to do so massively accelerate the expansion of the charging station infrastructure" - that emerges from the exploratory paper of the three parties.

E-cars: installation of charging stations delayed - energy companies are reporting problems

However, the energy transition is still progressing too slowly for such an upheaval.

The expansion of power lines and renewable energies cannot meet the increasing demand for electricity.

But only a few energy companies let this problem be noticed, for example EnBW.

The company admits that it can no longer keep up with the charging stations for electronic vehicles.

"In practice it can happen that the installation of a charging device is not possible immediately, but a local network reinforcement beforehand is necessary," said the supplier.

Nevertheless, as network operators, they are obliged to connect charging infrastructures to the network.

There are around 1,600 new charging points every month.

Without a charging station on site, however, it will be difficult for consumers, because according to calculations by the ADAC, charging an empty battery at a normal socket can take up to 17 hours.

With a so-called wallbox, the time drops to around two to three and a half hours, which is why the desire for their own charging station is increasing in private households.

The state development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), which finances the charging infrastructure for the Federal Ministry of Transport, has also noticed this: since November it has approved more than 750,000 grant applications with a funding volume of 820 million euros - but initially only 300 million were planned.

In the video: Higher premiums for buying e-cars in the future

Electricity providers warn of capacity utilization: Are e-cars threatening major power outages?

In order to be able to cope with the growing demand for charging stations for e-cars, some electricity suppliers and network operators are planning heavy investments in network expansion - including E.ON. According to the network board member, the group wants to ensure that every wallbox is also connected to the network. Short-term local network bottlenecks and restrictions should be avoided with so-called peak smoothing, a temporary shutdown of the charging processes.

Is it still possible that the load on the active charging stations for electric vehicles can lead to a widespread power failure? The energy supply company Süwag Energie is certain that it will not come to that, but temporary local overloads and failures are likely. The utility therefore advocates intervening in good time and creating incentives for variable electricity tariffs and network charges in order to reduce capacity utilization. In addition, politicians have installed an additional protection mechanism in the power grid. This stipulates that major customers should be disconnected from the grid before a major power outage occurs. Those corporations receive money from the network agency.

However, there are also companies who believe that more electric cars will help grid stability instead of harming it.

The energy supplier Lichtblick has already carried out successful tests in which batteries were combined to form virtual power plants.

Discharging the batteries could, among other things, compensate for fluctuations in the network.

In this case, the drivers of the cars should then share in the proceeds.

The company is also extremely optimistic, because a complete switch to electronic vehicles would require around 20 percent more electricity.

But this is easy to manage.

(Alina Schröder)

Source: merkur

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