Will the adoption of electric vehicles be affected by rising wholesale electricity prices? -Technology News, Firstpost

conversationSeptember 24, 2021 18:24:30 IST

Europe is facing an energy crisis due to low wind power, disconnections that allow it to share electricity across countries, and shrinking nuclear energy sources. The UK has responded by burning more gas to produce electricity, but gas prices are record high. As a result, wholesale electricity costs have been at their highest levels in recent years, which has a knock-on effect on everything that uses electricity.

One of the benefits of owning an electric vehicle (often abbreviated as EV) is that even though the cost of purchasing an electric vehicle is high, it is usually cheaper. Driving an EV for 100 miles costs an average of £ 4-6 (US $ 5.50-8), compared to £ 13-16 for a petrol or diesel car.

In the first half of the last decade, almost all public chargers in the UK have been free to use. When I drove my first EV in 2013, I moved between public charging stations. I was dissatisfied with the small range of cars under 100 miles with a full battery. I stuck with it, because not only was my sacrifice better for the environment, but my fuel was also free. And even when it wasn’t free, it was a lot cheaper than running my old diesel car.

It’s true that fossil fuel prices are also rising, but drivers need a good reason to abandon their old cars and switch to electricity. But where are the owners of electric cars and those who are aiming for them as electricity prices rise, and as the average EV running cost rises accordingly?

How much does it cost to charge an EV?

The average price per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity in the UK in 2019 and 2020 was around 18p. Data for 2021 have not yet been released, but online estimates from one of the UK’s six largest energy providers show that the average cost per kWh in September 2021 is around 24p.

A car with a 50 kWh battery will cost about £ 9.50 to charge at the average rate in 2020 (taking into account energy loss during charging). At the price of 24p / kWh in September 2021, it costs about £ 13 to charge the same car, which is equivalent to 200 miles. Filling an EV costs half as much as fueling a petrol or diesel vehicle. However, public charging rates vary widely, ranging from about 24p per kWh on some quick chargers to 69p on other units of highway service stations that offer ultra-fast charging.

At 69p, a full charge costs £ 34.50. This is the same as or even better than using fossil fuels. Of course, it’s unlikely that the EV will be completely charged from the sky, so some of that energy will be cheaper. But even so, if your electricity bill is high, the economic benefits of switching to EVs don’t seem to be that strong.

Where does it leave the EV?

Despite rising electricity prices, the lasting advantage of EVs is that researchers call them “energy-agnostic.” Vehicles with internal combustion engines typically require fuel refined from petroleum and have been designed for over 100 years to run on fossil fuels. EVs operate on the energy stored in batteries, and those batteries are virtually indifferent to the source of the energy.

It could be nuclear, hydro, or solar generated by a photovoltaic panel on the roof of a house. Again, installing these panels is expensive (although prices are falling each year), but once installed and the sun shines, you can charge your car while sitting in the drive. Given that the average car hasn’t been used for 95% of the time, there’s enough time to charge it for free from the sun.

Also, consider an era in which power networks across the country generate too much power. It seems unbelievable in the midst of an energy crisis, but sometimes the National Grid produces so much electricity that operators don’t know what to do with it.

This phenomenon became more common at the peak of the COVID blockade when some energy companies paid their customers to use renewable energy sources rather than turning them off. Electric vehicle batteries were the perfect sponge to absorb this extra power.

Many countries are building more resilient power networks based on generating electricity when it makes sense, that is, capturing the sun when it shines and the wind when it blows. Store this in a huge grid-scale battery called a megapack and use it when you don’t have renewable energy. t has been generated.

Electric vehicles may also be part of that storage, and testing is underway to assess the feasibility of V2G technology that allows the vehicle’s battery to transfer power to the local grid in the event of a shortage.

If you charge your car with the energy charges applicable to your home (and electricity is priced around supplying your home’s electricity demand, do not charge the battery of your car above 50kWh daily Remember) Your cost will almost certainly increase. But if you’re wise about when and how to charge your EV, you can benefit from very cheap fuel costs, if not free, for the next few years. EVs can even be an important part of how energy networks balance supply and demand and manage costs for the benefit of everyone.

EVs and their huge grid-connected batteries can actually help prevent future crises and high prices, rather than being expensive to refuel in an energy crisis.

Tom Stacy, Senior Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management, University of Anglia Ruskin