What do electric buses do at night?

[burger_jaap@mastodon.social]

What do electric buses do at night? They help balance the grid.

First Bus in Glasgow: "By flexing when buses are charged, the depots can increase demand at times when there is excess renewable energy on the system, particularly wind power in Scotland, and reduce demand during peak periods. This helps reduce the need to curtail renewable generation and supports a more efficient, flexible energy network."

First Bus launches UK-first trial to support National Grid using electric bus depots | First Bus UK News

First Bus trialling the use of its electric bus depots to help balance the UK’s electricity system by adjusting when vehicles charge, reducing wasted renewable energy.

First Bus UK News (news.firstbus.co.uk)

[burger_jaap@mastodon.social]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@burger_jaap/114852051000477418

another opportunity made possible by electrification

[ukeleleeric@mstdn.social]

@burger_jaap BUT, as a regular driver of an electric bus, it never ceases to amaze me how much of the electrics are powered on when the vehicle is not moving, even when 'powered down', and therefore how quickly the battery drains at rest.

[davidm_yeg@beige.party]

@burger_jaap

The best way to “reduce the need to curtail renewable generation” is to create a (carefully regulated) market for energy storage

[lovingfalloutlondon1954@mastodon.social]

@burger_jaap They reproduce, giving birth to Citroen Ami's, which grow up to be real cars.

[dckim@mastodon.social]

@burger_jaap that makes a lot of sense, and from the perspective of my home province of Ontario in Canada, where we sometimes need to offload electrical power cheaply to the USA(because there is too much for the grid), this is something we should be looking at carefully.

[ukeleleeric@mstdn.social]

@bytebro @burger_jaap Ticket machine & auxiliaries (GPS tracker, OR code reader). Sidelights, if headlight switch left on. Internal lights, possibly. Auxiliary battery (24V) charge maintainer from main battery. CCTV system - always powered on. Sometimes even things like USB charging ports (in theory should use little when not in use, but..). Destination display, often. All COULD have good reason for being on (eg. internal lights may need to be on for the cleaners, but then might get left on).

[yamabikko@theforkiverse.com]

@burger_jaap This is great, bringing the intermodal model to energy infrastructure. So many possibilities - electrified public transport, electrified School bus transport, private freight transport. Is that a virtuous circle?

[photom@mastodon.social]

@burger_jaap based and orangepilled

[mikeday@ohai.social]

@burger_jaap around 15 or so years ago, China proposed taking this one step further. If you can state when you next need to drive your electric car when connecting it to a suitably adapted charger, the grid can balance energy further by taking energy from all the connected cars to supply a short term peak demand before charging them again. I don't know whether this was actually done but it was a genius idea.

[cshlan@mastodon.social]

@mikeday @burger_jaap
People have been talking about that in the US and UK for a long time, too.

[rpbook@gts.phillipsuk.org]

@burger_jaap @clacksee one for your good news items?

[ideogram@social.coop]

@burger_jaap
I *hope* they do similar in Victoria (Australia) but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.
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