Local Electric Company wants EV owners to pay for upgrading neighborhood infrastructure.

[drb3333]

Some folks seem to forget that there are these things called permits that are required by many areas to do things like add an EV charging port. Qualified electricians will pull the permits, they don't want their licenses revoked.

Modification, such as adding a EV charger done, without pulling a permit and going through the required inspections can basically invalidate your insurance's requirement to pay you.

I reviewed all of the above and I don't believe anybody suggested an installation without going through the permitting process. (But thank you for the cautionary note.)

 

[CyberShy]

Wow. This is crazy FUD being created by the utility. Houses almost never draw their maximum load, and also will seldom all draw at the same time.

Since an L2 charger can use less than an oven or a dryer (2.8kw at 12A/240VAC is what I use), there is no risk of "dimming the lights" of everyone in the neighborhood. If they say this threatens all homes, then they underwired everyone and the feed to that block and someone made a huge mistake.

In addition, we all know a majority of extra power will be used overnight when everyone tends to use less energy overall.

And permits don't go to the utility, only the municipality. This is only for people who somehow need to upgrade service to their house because they are already under-wired. I only have 100A service to my home (24kw) and I've never seen my meter draw more than 15kw and that was when the backup electric heat on my geothermal heating was running because of a pump failure ( electric heat at 10kw in January).

Got a link @RSpanner? I picture of the notice? I need a good laugh.

 

[MP3Mike]

Modification, such as adding a EV charger done, without pulling a permit and going through the required inspections can basically invalidate your insurance's requirement to pay you.

Nobody is saying to do that. Don't install an EV charger, just get a permitted 50A outlet installed, and then use a mobile EVSE to charge your Tesla.

 

[drb3333]

Wow. This is crazy FUD being created by the utility. Houses almost never draw their maximum load, and also will seldom all draw at the same time.

Since an L2 charger can use less than an oven or a dryer (2.8kw at 12A/240VAC is what I use), there is no risk of "dimming the lights" of everyone in the neighborhood. If they say this threatens all homes, then they underwired everyone and the feed to that block and someone made a huge mistake.

In addition, we all know a majority of extra power will be used overnight when everyone tends to use less energy overall.

And permits don't go to the utility, only the municipality. This is only for people who somehow need to upgrade service to their house because they are already under-wired. I only have 100A service to my home (24kw) and I've never seen my meter draw more than 15kw and that was when the backup electric heat on my geothermal heating was running because of a pump failure ( electric heat at 10kw in January).

You are correct in that two FUD scenarios seem common: EVs will crash the grid, and charging takes ages. And I guess to be fair to the city of Eugene they may be sensitive to older homes with 100A or even 60A service and are being proactively cautious. But most homes are 200A and largely over-specified.

One of my neighbors thought Teslas at a nearby supercharger stayed on all day while the owners worked nearby.

In this case, I say leave it to the experts (aka licensed electricians) to evaluate and pull the permits. The city/utility does not need or care about the 48A usage, whether for HVAC, electric range, dryer, etc.

I wonder if the OP ran into a clerk who watched Fox too much as you seem to be saying...

 

[ewoodrick]

I reviewed all of the above and I don't believe anybody suggested an installation without going through the permitting process. (But thank you for the cautionary note.)

Don't you think that the permitting would get restricted by the power company?

 

[drb3333]

Don't you think that the permitting would get restricted by the power company?

That seems to go to the heart of this, and my answer is that I don't know. And I applaud the OP for checking in with them, but I don't think in my limited experience that there is much interaction between city permits and utilities (but open to being corrected).

The role of the electrician is to balance the existing consumption with new demand on a house-by-house basis, but who knows regarding an entire neighborhood.

We may be living in a new age where that is now the case given the FUD mentioned earlier. I do hope the OP keeps us updated so we can learn the result.

 

[ewoodrick]

That seems to go to the heart of this, and my answer is that I don't know. And I applaud the OP for checking in with them, but I don't think in my limited experience that there is much interaction between city permits and utilities (but open to being corrected).

The role of the electrician is to balance the existing consumption with new demand on a house-by-house basis, but who knows regarding an entire neighborhood.

We may be living in a new age where that is now the case given the FUD mentioned earlier. I do hope the OP keeps us updated so we can learn the result.

Why would the power company not want you to buy more product?

 

[GlazedHam]

Since it's a public utilities company I believe there's grounds for a lawsuit here. The supreme court has ruled that there must be actually basis behind fees in 'sheetz v. county of el dorado, california'. While that case doesn't 100% line up with OP is dealing with I'm sure a competent lawyer could spin it for your favor or find some other caselaw that might apply.

 

[RSpanner]

While EWEB may say that, you need to find when the PSC says.

While EWEB may say that, you need to find when the PSC says.

EWEB is a non for profit company. Why would the PSC dispute the current policies that have been approved already?

 

[Earl]

I wonder if the OP ran into a clerk who watched Fox too much as you seem to be saying...

Knowing the politics of Eugene, you can be fairly sure it isn't a Fox news issue. They tend to have a tax-and-spend socialist leanings that are undoubtedly seeing EVs as a new way to tax the middle class and the rich to buy more votes.

Funny how nobody made a big deal when air conditioning was rolled out even though AC is used at peak afternoon load and most home ev charging is in the middle of the night when load is low.

I actually have heard of public electric companies banning new A/C installations. Their wiring was way overloaded already due to deferred maintenance to where overloaded transformers were blowing up on hot evenings. They had been able to get by counting on the transformers cooling at night but A/C and new Televisions and similar loads weren't letting that happen.

I figure this is more of a new tax on the rich opportunity rather than a real issue though.

That's the way it worked when my grandparents had the power lines extended to reach their property back in the 1930's. For some fairly long period of time they'd get a check when a new customer hooked up to the line the original participants had paid for.

This sounds like a reasonable approach, however, we haven't seen such a thing from our government in my lifetime. It's easier to just try to pit everyone against everyone and try to figure out what you have to say to please 51% to vote for you by taking from 49%.