Because of private charging stations for e-cars: Whole streets risk power failures
Created: 06/22/2022, 16:22
By: Bjarne Kommnick
EWE warns of power failures due to unregistered charging stations for electric cars.
Because there are too many of them in private households.
Oldenburg – Private charging stations for electric cars can put a real strain on the power grid if consumers do not register them.
Then there is even a risk of power outages due to network overload.
Various energy supply companies recently warned of this, as reported by kreiszeitung.de.
Markus Joachim Schirmer from EWE explained in an interview with the
Handelsblatt
that there should be an extremely high number of unreported cases of private charging stations.
Utilities: | EWE |
Headquarters: | Oldenburg |
Number of employees: | 9.141 |
CEO: | Stefan Dohler (April 1, 2018–) |
EWE warns of power failures caused by private charging stations for electric cars
Accordingly, there are obviously more charging stations that are not registered than those that have been reported: "There are likely to be around 20,000 charging devices installed in the EWE network area that have not been reported to EWE Netz," Schirmer describes the situation for the Handelsblatt.
On the other hand, there are just 10,000 reported charging stations.
Charging stations up to and including 12 kilovolt amperes (kVA) are subject to registration.
With an output of more than 12 kVA, consumers would even have to obtain the grid operator's approval.
Recently, a company developed a power bank for electric cars.
EWE warns that unregistered wall boxes in private households could cause power outages.
© Birgit Reichert/dpa
Unreported charging stations in private households could quickly lead to a supply problem, especially in so-called “dentist avenues”, as the industry likes to say.
Because in streets where there are a particularly large number of charging stations at the same time, the power grid would often have to be strengthened in a targeted manner.
Otherwise there is a risk of congestion, which is why power failures can also occur in such streets.
This is particularly the case in more affluent neighborhoods because people with high incomes are more likely to drive electric cars and buy appropriate equipment – such as private charging stations.
Unannounced, the network operators could not correctly estimate the electricity requirement.
Overall, the network expansion for electric cars is already too slow to meet the growing demand.
“Zahnarztalleen” cause “particularly high loads”: with private charging stations for electric cars
With regard to the "Zahnarztalleen" Schirmer explains: "These are the first areas that cause particularly high loads." Competitor E.ON also explained to the Handelsblatt: "We can understand the challenge of our colleagues at EWE very well." E.ON reports many unreported charging station installations.
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Registration for private charging stations has been mandatory since 2019.
But customers often don't know anything about this: "In some cases, the service provider who connected the charging station says that he will take care of the registration - and then doesn't do it," explains Schirmer.
Sometimes charging is still a problem, electric car drivers often complain about the lack of charging stations in public spaces.
Because there is only one charging station for every 21 electric cars.
