| Thanks for the detailed response! Will definitely give that IEEE pdf a read. > First, the most fundamental problem: Home electrical systems and the distribution grid are not ready for this. I'm not as familiar with code for new buildings in CA, I know that they require solar on them do they not do solar to grid as part of that? That wasn't something I'd really thought of, I'd assumed most of the cost for that usually comes from retrofitting more so than if it's during the initial setup but haven't actually looked to verify that. > First: Battery packs have limited charge/discharge cycles. If you use your car for V2G, your battery will fail much earlier than if you just use it to drive. Why pays for that? The warranty will not cover it, I can assure you of that. Also, think of the waste and recycling load that would impose. It depends pretty heavily on the manufacturer, but newer batteries on higher end cars have pretty amazing cycle lifetimes, watching car enthusiests on youtube it's not uncommon for people to buy used tesla batteries from totaled cars for custom conversions or custom home battery systems. > Second: I just spent money to fill-up my battery. And now I am going to let the grid drain it? Are they going to pay me? OK. They have to pay me enough for me to recoup my investment and more than justify having to spend tens of thousands of dollars when the battery fails. That power will be insanely expensive. Who is going to buy it? Energy rates are already ridiculously high. This makes no sense to me. I'd fully expect to be getting that cost back + some small amount for the inconvenience back as credits on my bill. (I would mostly be expecting this for handling particularly bad peaks and not so much an everyday thing) > Third: Range anxiety with electrics is a thing today and will be a thing in the future. Why drain your battery to the grid? This makes no sense from that perspective. It's like saying to your neighbors "Hey, I just filled-up my gasoline tank. While my car is parked, feel free to siphon off up to 50% of my tank.". Nobody is going to do that. I'm not sure if you have an EV but for me range anxiety went away pretty quickly after buying mine, it's pretty much only for long range road trips that I have to pay any attention to range at all, though convincing people of that before they own an EV is pretty tricky (and there are people who need to drive hundreds of miles a day that don't work great with current EVs) > My take on this is that people will do what they have to do given their circumstances. People have very random daily schedules. Some work at night, some have work and college, others might have a couple of jobs, after school activities, etc. There's a lot of variability built into behavior. It's like herding cats. In the end, I don't think behavior will make a significant impact. Those people that have different daily schedules probably actually help as they're less likely to be charging during those peak evening hours. From what I've seen the systems are pretty automated and there's a lot less for people to manage than you might think, it's more like setting up a thermostat where there's some initial work to setup a schedule but then it's just plug your car in when you get home and leave it plugged in and they can schedule the load so it's ready when you plan to leave and then if you have need to leave earlier than usual it's not hard to override it (though I do wish more EVSEs had direct buttons on them to control that type of thing). |
My neighborhood is barely 25 years old. Meaning, it was dirt when I bought my house and watched as they built it.
Still, the grid wasn't ready. The house was not ready.
When I put in our 13 kW solar array we had to rip out the original breaker panel and replace it with one of higher capacity. Not because of the size of the array (which is larger than pretty much all installations around me by at least a factor of 2). No, it was simply because, 25 years ago, when plans were drawn for this entire development, the Building Department did not have any requirements on the books for the future addition of solar. The meter had to be replaced as well.
Just to make sure it is clear. What this mean was tearing-up the stucco all around the existing panel, making a larger hole, rewiring the new panel and meter and redoing the stucco. Of course, stucco is basically concrete, which means that side of the house lost its color, which required repainting the entire exterior of the house because the faded stucco color was not going to be easy to match at all. I don't remember the cost of that part of the job. I was not allowed to do it myself (I did the rest of the solar installation). I think it was in the order of $20K, maybe more.
I don't know what code might look like today for new developments. I would hope they include planning for solar, which should include power distribution, transformers, meters, breaker panel and other requirements.
Regarding battery issues in V2G applications, well, the IEEE document covers them well. It boils down to faster degradation due to lots more cycling, warranty issues (the EV manufacturer covers miles driven, not V2G cycling), etc.
On the subject of paying for the power you contribute. Well, we'll have to wait and see. I have no clue how they might plan to manage this. If I am going to use an EV for V2G, the utility better pay me a lot more than what it will cost to replace the battery pack. Which means that the users of my power will likely have to pay quite a bit more per kWh than today.
I generate a lot of excess energy. The way they pay you back for excess solar today is absolutely laughable. In fact, the fear now is that homeowners will have no incentive to install solar because what is known as "NEM 3.0" metering, well, basically screws them even worse than those of us who already have solar.
Here are the basics:
https://www.solar.com/learn/nem-3-0-proposal-and-impacts-for...