Control/Monitoring EVs by Municipal Power Companies

[Potatoee]

I happen to live in a town that has its own municipal power company (no generation, just owns the town grid) that is very progressive in promoting solar, EVs, etc. I've had the pleasure of interacting with them on several things but one thing that came up recently was grid and load planning for the town. They desire to see representative usage stats for this purpose and I've shared such data informally. Anyway, if I think things through, having access capabilities like the Tesla API could enable such data collection automatically. I should also add that my municipality is very proactive in communicating "peak demand periods" to the community and requesting everyone to lower their usage during certain periods of time. Doing so effectively may lower future electrical rates for the community. This being said, in this case it could be advantageous for the municipality to defer charging for the community until after the peak demand period is passed (3-4 times per year), typically after 8PM.

Anyway, there are obvious privacy and control concerns here but I thought I'd mention it to the community since IMO there's potential to use vehicle management methods to enable effective grid planning, mitigate the impact of power emergencies, etc.

 

[qdeathstar]

Google is creating a city where there are sensors on everything and everybody.. maybe move there?

 

[640k]

I happen to live in a town that has its own municipal power company (no generation, just owns the town grid) that is very progressive in promoting solar, EVs, etc. I've had the pleasure of interacting with them on several things but one thing that came up recently was grid and load planning for the town. They desire to see representative usage stats for this purpose and I've shared such data informally. Anyway, if I think things through, having access capabilities like the Tesla API could enable such data collection automatically. I should also add that my municipality is very proactive in communicating "peak demand periods" to the community and requesting everyone to lower their usage during certain periods of time. Doing so effectively may lower future electrical rates for the community. This being said, in this case it could be advantageous for the municipality to defer charging for the community until after the peak demand period is passed (3-4 times per year), typically after 8PM.

Anyway, there are obvious privacy and control concerns here but I thought I'd mention it to the community since IMO there's potential to use vehicle management methods to enable effective grid planning, mitigate the impact of power emergencies, etc.

what, exactly, are you hoping to accomplish? electricity isn't a finite resource like water, oil or gas, and as renewable sources come in to fold, electricity demand won't (shouldn't) have as much of an impact on the network.

personally I think there's already too much data collection, for the sake of what? what exactly would be the point to have my city monitor my daily driving habits of my vehicle? red light cameras were outlawed for varying and obvious reasons. if I drive 15 mph over the speed limit, should i automatically get a ticket in the mail? what about if I'm involved in an accident? is that the city's business? law enforcement?

these are all pretty serious questions if you dive in to them and people are too freely giving up these details for the wrong reasons.

 

[AdamVIP]

This sounds tiresome. The government already tracks enough about me. I dont need them to start controlling my charge time too. Besides thats built into the car already. You can set it up yourself

 

[tvad]

I have no problem with people opting in to share data of they choose to do so. I do have a problem with governmental requirements to collect data.

 

[qdeathstar]

I have no problem with people opting in to share data of they choose to do so. I do have a problem with governmental requirements to collect data.

Ask now, require later.