Will electric cars overload the power grid?
Summary
Here Steve Hughes, managing director of power quality specialist REO UK, explains how we can minimise the likelihood of outages as the number electric vehicles (EVs) continues to grow. As more EV charging stations are needed to accommodate the rising number of electric cars, we could see consumption go even higher. Harmonics are unwanted higher frequencies that create a distorted wave pattern that can lead to the overheating of conductors and cause faults in the operations of protection relays. These failures have a knock-on effect and can create problems for the wider grid, causing blackouts, particularly in small and densely populated areas. Minimising the risks of a power outage can be achieved by incentivising off-peak charging, making use of the balancing mechanism and using technologies like harmonic filters to reduce THD.