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patrickstarpenishead t1_ixs6fe7 wrote

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

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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