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Random delay when charging - New 2022 charge point regs now in force

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I’ve updated the firmware in my Zappi several times. It doesn’t look to be a process that can be forced from MyEnergi. I have to say that with peak rate electricity costing more than 4 times as much as my Octopus Go off peak rate I’m not enthusiastic about having a random delayed stop to the currently fixed charging period.
 
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If this random delay also applies during daytime hours (and it seems that way) then the Zappi starting charge according to solar export will be impacted. That will be tedious on days of intermittent sun and clouds.

I can see it makes sense to stagger charging start times at key off-peak times
 
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I think we are all very influenced by how Octopus Go works, but I would suggest that its outdated and may not last in its current form. If you look at cost and co2 intensity there often isn't any real difference between 00:30 -04:30 and other times.

I expect we will see DRS become the norm, like Intelligent Octopus but using the charger to control when it is providing electricity. We will keep our reduced pricing but only by being flexible. We will be upgrading existing chargers to get the option to be on a DRS tarrif.
 
The new charge point regulations have come into force as of June 1st 2022 for all new chargers sold in the UK.

Smart charge point regulations explained

Has anyone updated their Zappi with the new firmware? Anyone know if I can switch the feature off?

I personally hate this idea and wonder if one day it’s just going to update and then I will be forced to live with the random delay starting.
Quote:
"If you’re used to your EV charging as soon as you plug it in, or you’re desperate for a charge, then you can override these settings, but the intention of the new smart charge point regulations is to encourage more EV charging at the off peak times."
 
Sounds a like an archaic reactive solution when they should be focussing on adaptive solutions.

If they know, using recent usage data that the demand at 1am is x then they should supply enough power for that moment with the ability to scale back immediately if it isn't needed.

Otherwise I fail to see what purpose the staggering actually does. 7kW x 1000 (cars) is still 7million watts wether they plug in exactly at 1am or at random times.
 
Sounds a like an archaic reactive solution when they should be focussing on adaptive solutions.

If they know, using recent usage data that the demand at 1am is x then they should supply enough power for that moment with the ability to scale back immediately if it isn't needed.

Otherwise I fail to see what purpose the staggering actually does. 7kW x 1000 (cars) is still 7million watts wether they plug in exactly at 1am or at random times.
If everyone starts charging at exactly the same time, say 1am, there is a massive instantaneous surge in demand on the power grid. This is expensive, and perhaps impossible demand to meet. Power stations can’t change their output instantaneously. Even pumped storage systems like Dinorwig take a minute or so to wind up to full power. Staggering the demand build up over perhaps 10 minutes by introducing the random delays enables the demand to be met without crashing the grid. Makes a lot of sense. But tariff systems need to be adjusted to match. I don’t usually care whether I get my 4 hours of cheap electricity for charging between 0030 and 0430 or between 0230 and 0630 or anytime in between but I do need a system that allows me to get the charge at an agreed price. I think the principle of the random start delay is fine, so long as tariffs are able to match it.
 
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Probably unrelated, but noticed that my 2 year old PodPoint wall box had kicked in at 12:40 rather than the usual 12:32 a few times last week...

Not that worried, except as detailed above, it didn't turn off until 04:40 rather than 04:32, which it has for years.
 
Electricity grids have always struggled with sharp demand spikes. The classic old school example is everyone (nationwide) getting up at the end of the first half of a televised match and popping on the kettle. All Teslas (and probably most other EVs) will have their clocks set to atomic time (NTP), and so when 10s of thousands of Teslas all kick on 7kWh (3 or 4 kettles?) at *exactly* the same time (at 00:30 or whenever the cheap rate kicks in), that's a massive spike. Spread that over 10 minutes, and things become manageable. The grid operator still has to know this spike is coming, but smoothing the spike is extremely valuable to the health of the grid.
 
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I'm a bit of a data nerd, monitoring our electrickery use/generation. As part of that, I also log grid frequency. One possible side-effect of a sharp increase in grid demand is a corresponding drop in grid frequency. One thing I've noticed is that if the grid frequency drops below around 49.8Hz while I'm charging the Tesla, the charge rate also drops very quickly. So the car and/or the wall charger are doing some automatic load-shedding in response to an event which would indicate the grid is struggling to meet demand.

Assuming all chargers/cars implement something similar then its pretty much impossible for EVs to sustain a grid demand which exceeds generation for any significant period.
 
2 kettles
Near enough ... though depends on the kettles as they vary between 1.5kW and 3 kW. The grid is already used to handling this massive instantaneous spike, at least for or a few minutes, but the EV charging is going to then be continuous for a lot longer so any short dump to the grid that has worked to date will likely be used up and the core generation will need to really get its act together. It seems a reasonable scenario to be planning for but I doubt that it's going to be a major issue long-term.
 
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I saw this at lunch time, on a similar vein. Either the National Grid is already struggling or they're expecting it to struggle come winter. Interesting experiment though:

I don't think they are 'struggling', they just want to have measures in place to allow them to avoid using more expense and carbon intensive sources of electricity, and while prices are high consumers are more willing to try this type of scheme. As I found out during the Octopus trial, my houses typical usage is low at these times so there is little financial upside.
 
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