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sighbourbon t1_ixq64yj wrote

Reply to comment by goldfaux in Electric-vehicle charging stations could use as much power as a small town by 2035 — and the grid isn't ready by Sorin61

Sounds accurate, great reply. But I’d still love to see a source

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RockinRobin-69 t1_ixqbf42 wrote

Can confirm. I worked at a chemical plant. We had a 2500 hp motor. It used more electricity than a small town. The power company had conditions for turning it on, but they were more than happy to supply us with, and charge us for, power.

Edit; hour to hp

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patrickstarpenishead t1_ixry03f wrote

That’s like 12 normal sized cars worth of power…

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Canadian_Infidel t1_ixs2f22 wrote

Going full throttle. 2500 hp is very large for an electric motor. We had a 5000 hp one where I worked and it was a 10k bill PER START plus running energy.

Also cars are very powerful. Your home uses maybe 10-12 hp, max. With the dryer and stove going. Absolute max.

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patrickstarpenishead t1_ixs6fe7 wrote

Oh I completely understand. A single car is far more power hungry than a house as well. When we’re talking town scale though 2500hp isn’t that impressive. You have to notify the power company only because it’s a large sudden spike that could damage other devices outside the building due to voltage drops.

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RockinRobin-69 t1_ixsa9ga wrote

We had a separate building for the variable frequency drive. We weren’t allowed to start it across the line. It would have browned out the city.

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patrickstarpenishead t1_ixsamqw wrote

I’ve been present for a 10000hp motor startup as Siemens. It was incredible. The whole building shook and they had a lot of steps just to get it going.

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RockinRobin-69 t1_ixssyad wrote

I was mostly just curious so I did some quick math. There seem to be some pretty knowledgeable folks here. If I get something wrong, just tell me and I’ll correct. 2500hp X 0.746kw/hp X 24hr X 365 =16 million kwhr. An average house is about 10,000 kwhr per year. That motor was worth 1600 houses.

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patrickstarpenishead t1_ixsw8w1 wrote

Sounds about right. When you’re talking an entire town though that’s not that significant. And it’s not just houses it’s homes. Which could mean a reasonably sized apartment. Not hard to fit 400 units into a single apartment building.

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RockinRobin-69 t1_ixt1xtu wrote

I get your point. That was a single piece of equipment in a massive plant. The utilities had no problem supplying us.

Having charging stations use the power of a small town is actually not that big of a deal right now. Having many of them in 13 years is not that big of a deal.

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Lil-Wayne-Brady t1_ixr1i99 wrote

From the article, “By 2035, a larger installation serving both passenger cars and trucks could need to provide 19 megawatts of peak power, National Grid projects, roughly what a small town uses. In 2045, that kind of truck stop may require 30 megawatts of capacity, approaching the peak usage of a large industrial plant.”

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Touchtom t1_ixwgszo wrote

Work at a very large plant. We have 3 pumps alone that draw more energy than the whole town around us...and it's not a small town. We have to generate our own power from waste gas and steam to supplement what the grid cannot provide.

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