Energy sector issues warnings on cars
BY: ANNABEL HEPWORTH AND DEBBIE GUEST From: The Australian November 10, 2011 12:00AM
Perth IT expert Joseph Law, charging his Mitsubishi i-MiEV at home in Edgewater yesterday, is the city's first private owner of a fully electric car Picture: Colin Murty Source: The Australian
THE uptake of electric cars could stress the electricity grid unless owners plug in their vehicles during off-peak times.
The energy sector fears the owners of electric vehicles will charge and discharge them during peak demand times, usually between about 4pm and 8pm when people come home from work and also turn on energy guzzling appliances such as air-conditioners.
This would require costly spending on new and augmented low-voltage poles and wires.
In Queensland, Ergon Energy estimates that a single electric vehicle would likely double the power load of a typical home.
In Victoria, SPAusnet, which runs the poles and wires network to 620,000 customers in the state's east, estimates that even if just 5 per cent of households had electric cars this would require "significant (network) augmentation" to the network.
The warnings are contained in submissions to the Australian Energy Market Commission, which has been asked by Ministerial Council of Energy chairman Martin Ferguson to investigate supporting the "economically efficient" uptake of the vehicles.
As many Australian families have two cars and a garage, and petrol and diesel prices are rising, electric cars are expected to grow in popularity as a second vehicle.
Ergon warns: "Uncontrolled charging will significantly increase electricity network peak demand, leading to increased capital investment in network capacity, leading to increased electricity tariffs."
The runaway take-up of rooftop solar panels is already undermining the quality of power supplies. The growth in air-conditioning units has also required costly new infrastructure to avoid brown-outs.
"The adverse impact of EVs could be much greater than each of these two technologies if steps are not taken early to manage the charging process and preferably before there is any significant volume of EVs in any particular area," it told the AEMC.
But if the growth of electric cars was "well managed" this could put downward pressure on electricity prices because the costs of the energy network would be spread over more customers using more power.
A week after he began driving his electric car, Perth IT expert Joseph Law is enjoying saving on fuel and says charging his vehicle off the grid is easy.
Mr Law, 40, is Perth's first private owner of a fully electric car after spending almost $49,000 on a Mitsubishi i-MiEV. He opted for an electric vehicle to keep up to date with new technology and to help the environment.
The car has a range of about 100km and Mr Law plugs it into a 15-amp power socket - slightly more powerful than a normal household socket, which is typically 10-amp.
An overnight eight-hour charge fully powers the car. The multimedia resource officer said running the car cost about 1c a kilometre, much cheaper than the 8c/km it costs to run a car on petrol.
He is also taking advantage of the limited power-charge spots around Perth, which allow electric car users to recharge for free. But he said there needed to be more charge spots to attract people to electric vehicles.
On the big upfront cost, he said: "You've got to look at it long-term, trying to get away from the reliance on fossil fuels and all the fluids you have to stick into vehicles. In terms of an engine source, electric is much better than a combustible engine."
A spokeswoman from Western Power said a growth in electric cars could present the problem of managing extra demand on the electricity system and it was studying how electric cars interacted with the power grid system.
