Vermont, rather famously, closed their nuclear plant, and imports most of their electricity from Hydroquebec, as part of a green agenda. The electric supply is supplanted by large solar investments, in what is the cloudiest state in the Union. Vermont electricity supply is bizarre, as a result. The electric vehicle penetration is, not surprisingly, rather modest. There are not a lot of chargers, and the state itself is only 650,000 people, so, it’s like the population of, well, Virginia Beach, in terms of infrastructure scale - so it comes as no surprise that the electric infrastructure was overwhelmed by the number of people descending on them for the eclipse.
I work in a 19 story 2019 constructed building, with free EV charging. There was so little demand, in the garage they had to open up 2/3 of the charging parking spaces to everyone by changing the signs that said EV only. This is in Phila. So how can such be properly planned in VT?
We had two chargers put in around 12 miles from me..after 1 year they removed them.
Similar things happen with gas stations during massive power outages. The one who has diesel backup generators gets massive lines especially slow filling gas cans.
The State of Vermont did not "close its nuclear plant" Its owner, Entergy, did so as a business decision. The plant competed on the New England grid along with all other generation suppliers. The plant required a refueling, which would have been a $70 million commitment by the owner. The owner decided, based on its projection of future grid prices, that continued operation was economically unfeasible.
Absolutely. Maybe once or twice in my lifetime I had a problem getting gas. Sandy being the most recent, then decades ago when they had odd even fueling days for a little while, we managed. My bet is half the members on this board weren't even born then. EV charging problems seems to be pretty common this past winter for many EV owners. More so than me having problems getting gas in my lifetime. I'm pretty sure many members had similar experiences.
Wasn’t that simple. The Vermont legislature voted in 2010 against renewing the certificate to operate under political pressure from anti-nuclear protesters. Entergy won the court case against that action in 2012. But cheap natural gas generation, at that time, lowered electric prices and made the plant less competitive. They shut down in 2014.
I’m not disagreeing with you, I am simply saying that the cost of running the plant, and therefore, the business decision, included the cost of overcoming the adversarial legislative environment. The Vermont legislature had already tried to shut them down. The legal battle to stay open cost money. Further lawsuits, to overcome actions by the legislature, which were very likely, given the political climate, had to be added to the business decision.
This is true. But there should be a way for good old capitalism to solve this. First, we need to let capitalism work and remove price gouging laws. If we allow the free-market to set prices, then it might be profitable for a business to break out a portable diesel generator and move it to these high demand areas and change what the market will bear. I'm pretty sure people will pay quadruple the going rate or more to charge their vehicle if it saves them a few hours waiting around. Even private individuals with level 2 charging could sell electricity to passerbys at a profit.
But don't they have an APP to tell them where to go to charge, and the wait times?
So, what’s in our town a rare sight - a stunning model S - only she’s sitting at a stop sign surfing a dumb phone* - blocking others -
