https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/01/california_ev_heatwave/
One week after announcing plans to phase out autos powered by gasoline, California energy authorities are facing a heat wave so severe residents are being asked not to charge their electric vehicles during "flex alerts" designed to reduce stress on the grid.
According to a heat bulletin [PDF; 134kB] issued by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), temperatures across the state are expected to be 10 to 20 degrees warmer than typical between August 30 and September 6. Load on the electrical grid peaks between 4-9 pm, during which time CAISO said it may issue flex alerts urging Californians to reduce their electricity consumption.
"The top three conservation actions are to set thermostats to 78 degrees [25˚C] or higher, avoid using large appliances and charging electric vehicles, and turn off unnecessary lights," CAISO said, noting that voluntary reduction in energy consumption could "prevent more drastic measures, including rotating power outages."
(Score: 5, Informative) by captain normal on Saturday September 03 2022, @03:55PM (5 children)
If PGE and Edison hadn't been fighting rooftop solar installations for the last 20 years, There would be plenty of power for running air conditioning and charging electric vehicles..
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday September 03 2022, @05:07PM (2 children)
Why would anyone mod this as flamebait? It might be exaggerated but it's well documented the electric utility companies lobby against home solar installations.
compiling...
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2022, @09:26PM
Because it's soft-headed, left-wing thinking.
(Score: 2) by Username on Sunday September 04 2022, @10:19PM
Union folks always support the unions. Even if that union is in opposition to public, and the environments best interest. I have no doubt if solar installs came with union labor and monthly union inspects through whatever CA nonsense it would have been approved.
That is my guess, personally I never downmod unless it's outright lies or just a bunch of swear words directed at someone.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2022, @05:55PM
Durr hurr see electric is useless told you so and I drive 400 miles every day whut now libs durr hurr
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 05 2022, @02:58AM
The unreliability of the grid would have been a bigger obstacle. For example, not much point to doing a solar buyback program, for an example of a solar incentive program, when California's grid can't support it.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2022, @04:48PM (2 children)
Californians are getting exactly what they voted for.
(Score: 2) by julian on Monday September 05 2022, @12:02AM (1 child)
The *request* to not charge your vehicle (which is not enforceable) only applies to the hours between 16:00 and 21:00. Most EVs are programmed to charge overnight, and reach peak capacity right when their owner needs them in the morning. Many phones can do the same thing. It saves wear on the batteries. Everyone I know who has an EV finds this more convenient than having to travel to a specific location and pump liquid fuel into their vehicle.
(Score: -1, Troll) by khallow on Monday September 05 2022, @03:13AM
As long as they never have a need to travel during that time.
With a gas powered car, as long as you take that few minutes to fill the tank, you don't have to worry about range, traveling during that certain time, or the wear on the gas tank.
This is a typical sorry California problem. The public needs to sacrifice and cut back with progressively worsening travel options so that the state leadership can continue to make these terrible decisions.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Saturday September 03 2022, @04:53PM (13 children)
When a lot more people have EVs, the remaining nuke plant will be gone, and we get more heat waves.
It's a good thing more people are leaving the state than coming in.
I just passed a drug test. My dealer has some explaining to do.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2022, @05:18PM (6 children)
I need to have a nuclear power plant in my back yard
(Score: 5, Insightful) by deimtee on Sunday September 04 2022, @12:11AM (5 children)
You already have access to a fusion reactor. It delivers about 1KW / m2 for about 6 hours per day.
Current power receivers are about 30% efficient and can be placed in unused areas such as rooftops. If you collect 35.5 m2 of power then you should get about 64 KWhr per day.
64 KWhr should be enough for anyone.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2022, @04:03PM
"You already have access to a fusion reactor."
But it's not in my back yard.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday September 04 2022, @06:20PM (3 children)
64 KWhr should be enough for anyone.
Didn't Bill Gates say that back when he was writing DOS?
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by drussell on Sunday September 04 2022, @11:47PM (2 children)
Bill Gates didn't write MS-DOS / PC-DOS, he bought the rights from Seattle Computer for 86-DOS and sold licenses to his resultant "product" to IBM to ship with the original 5150 PC.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by mcgrew on Friday September 09 2022, @04:26PM (1 child)
What he bought from Seattle was 86-DOS. Gates made it work with IBM's BIOS and licensed it to IBM, the company his high priced lawyer parents worked for, and you would probably have never heard of him if IBM had not pissed off Gary Kildal, (sp?) who had the CP/M that was hot on the microcomputers of the time.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by drussell on Friday September 09 2022, @04:55PM
No, Gates paid Tim Paterson to adapt 86-DOS to the IBM machine instead of the 8086-based computer kit Seattle Computer Products originally wrote it for.
Bill Gates did NOT write PC-DOS/MS-DOS!!
He did write the basic interpreters that were included with / available for many of the 8-bit computers back in the day, but he didn't write PC-DOS/MS-DOS.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Saturday September 03 2022, @06:00PM
It's already a lot more fun, depending on where you are. People with smart thermostats in Colorado had their climate control remotely disabled this week because the governor declared an energy emergency.
If you can, convert your household to energy independence as fast as you can. The energy crunch is about to get a lot worse as the weather turns cold in Europe. Also, if you have smart home features like thermostats or fridges, get rid of them and get non-connected ones. It will not be fun to have all your food spoil because some politician somewhere that you don't deserve to have any power.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Touché) by helel on Saturday September 03 2022, @06:32PM (4 children)
Yes, they call all move to Texas where they can enjoy reliable grid failures instead of this unpredictable "once every few years" nonsense!
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Sunday September 04 2022, @01:20AM (2 children)
If only you weren't speaking of California and its even less reliable grid. Ruined joke is sad.
(Score: 4, Informative) by helel on Sunday September 04 2022, @02:17AM (1 child)
Texas killed somewhere between 200 and 800 [houstonpublicmedia.org] people last year with their faulty gird.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Sunday September 04 2022, @04:34AM
(Score: 1) by zion-fueled on Sunday September 04 2022, @12:51PM
In texas I could run solar. A lot of other areas not so much. Texas winter is also weak, they're just unprepared.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Saturday September 03 2022, @06:06PM (13 children)
Meanwhile California has outlawed has cars and will fine car companies for not making enough EVs. I am a huge fan of EVs and think everyone should have one, but I don't think anyone should be forced to. And if the state wants to mandate EVs then the most moronic move they could make to get citizens to go along with that is to tell them not to charge their EVs because of energy shortages.
That makes no sense especially when most EVs charge overnight when demand is low.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by zocalo on Saturday September 03 2022, @07:11PM (1 child)
Clean energy sources are all well and good, but you've got to have a plan to balance them off each other when one or more might experience poor generating conditions, and that means taking into account exceptional circumstances like those CA is currently experiencing. Hopefully some lessons will be learnt and the balance adjusted to cope, because data strongly suggests that extreme weather events and environmental conditions that might impact power generation are getting both more frequent and more extreme. Personally, I think the best way of doing that is to make it a *lot* easier for people to install solar, wind, heatpumps, or whatever, to generate at least some of their own power needs locally and/or at community level.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2022, @08:30PM
I run mine to collect the water that condenses out of the air.. No shortage here
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2022, @09:22PM
Meanwhile, moron repeats what the article already says.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Saturday September 03 2022, @10:55PM (9 children)
No, it banned the sale of brand-new gas cars within the state. We're all still allowed to drive our gas cars, buy/sell them second-hand, or (as far as I'm aware) purchase them in other states/countries and bring them home.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Sunday September 04 2022, @02:20AM (7 children)
Presumably, hybrids will also still be allowed to be sold in California under the proposed regime.
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Sunday September 04 2022, @05:31AM (6 children)
And presumably, they'll close the loophole of buying cars in other states and importing them. Presuming, of course, they aren't bluffing and drop the mandate when it becomes too infeasible to pretend to carry on.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Sunday September 04 2022, @08:21AM (1 child)
Have you actually read any of the proposed regulations?!
They specifically talk about hybrids being allowed, they talk about exhaust emissions, battery warranty requirements and a whole bunch of other stuff...
https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/rulemaking/2022/advanced-clean-cars-ii [ca.gov]
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Sunday September 04 2022, @11:13AM
That's the problem. They are "proposed" not actual. And hybrid would not be "zero emission" which is repeatedly mentioned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2022, @09:53AM (3 children)
Then perhaps people will do what they do here. You buy and register the car in the next state. You drive it in your state. Then you have lower rego and cheaper insurance. As a bonus the parking tickets go nowhere as you don't live in the state. Win-win.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 05 2022, @12:39AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday September 05 2022, @03:38AM (1 child)
That makes no sense. Many, many people in NYC own property in other states like Connecticut or New Jersey, and have vehicles that are garaged there. It is perfectly normal to drive that vehicle into NYC because, say, it's a truck and you are going to help a friend move some furniture, or any one of a thousand other reasons. So it's ubiquitous to have an NYC address and driver's license and a vehicle whose plate is out-of-state.
If California indeed has a law banning that then it's only because no lawyer has yet sued the state and gotten it struck down. If California doesn't like citizens shopping around for better laws then it should secede.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by khallow on Monday September 05 2022, @03:35PM
(Score: 2) by Username on Sunday September 04 2022, @11:07PM
So they're banning the lower emissions and highly regulated new cars, while leaving the old 1970s 12 cylinder 5mpg boats? Sure the 70s is a stretch, but makes the point.
I would think letting the natural progression of people upgrading to better vehicles over time, rich guy new to new and poor guy used to newer used, would be better environmentally, than stopping the feed of better vehicles and sticking the poor with whatever is left for the next few decades until batteries become cheap enough to economically repair and chargers become fast enough to equal the speed of stopping for gas.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Entropy on Saturday September 03 2022, @07:21PM (4 children)
Wasting water in a desert, and messing up the remainder of the country due to stupid policies. Ever try to use a stupid CARB-compliant gas can? You spill more gasoline than you get in the lawnmower. Now they are trying to ban gasoline engines and have people not charge their electric vehicles? Enjoy getting hepatitis on your walk to work from the homeless feces on the sidewalks.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Saturday September 03 2022, @10:52PM (3 children)
Only parts of the lower half of the state qualify as "a desert" — the rest varies by location. The big problem is that most of the state now has far too many people living there, and development companies constantly pressure politicians into allowing even more housing to be built.
I haven't needed to, since I have a lawnmower that has rechargeable batteries instead, but I used to watch my father add gas to our old lawnmowers every so often, and he didn't seem to have a problem doing it.
No, they're banning the sale of brand-new gas-powered cars within the state. We're all still allowed to keep driving our current gas-powered cars, and anyone shopping for a car still has the option of buying a second-hand gas-powered car or (AFAIK) ordering a new one from out of the state.
Luckily, like the vast majority of Californians that don't live within San Francisco, I've never seen human feces sitting out in public. Contrary to how some news outlets portray it, not much of the state shares SF's problems.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2022, @12:24AM (2 children)
https://www.amazon.ca/No-Spill-1450-5-Gallon-Poly-Compliant/dp/B000W9JN4S [amazon.ca]
I was curious about that, so I looked it up. Apparently Californians are too stupid to stop pouring when the tank is full.
I'm guessing most of the gp's spill is when he got pissed off enough to rip the stupid valve off and it didn't have a decent spout.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Entropy on Sunday September 04 2022, @04:27AM
I never ripped the valve off or anything like that. I had 4-5 of them before I started using water cans instead.
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Sunday September 04 2022, @05:36AM
I used to have that module too, but I ripped it out because it was triggering in the booze section of the grocery store. TMI. Now, I have installed the module that let's me know when other people are wrong. Turns out it's when they disagree with me. Who knew?
(Score: 4, Informative) by redback on Sunday September 04 2022, @02:34AM (2 children)
California asks people not to charge between 4pm and 9pm.
Nobody does that anyway, outside of an emergency or while roadtripping.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Sunday September 04 2022, @04:23AM (1 child)
4pm and 9pm...
When do you get home from work?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2022, @11:03AM
Around 8pm or so, usually. Why do you ask? :P
(Score: 2) by Username on Monday September 05 2022, @02:36PM
California, where you're allowed to drive a private jet, but cannot own a gas generator or lawnmower. Rules for thee, not for me. Socialists always punch down. It's your fault for being poor and not owning a jet, right?