US states with most EVs

Those 400k+ CA owners are gonna be pissed this summer when the forecasted blackouts hit and they can’t recharge their EVs.

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It’s significant that CA has about 42% of the nations EVs even though it’s more like 13% of the nations registered cars.

CA has more EVs than the next 14 highest states combined.

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Blackout predictions in CA tend to be overblown, but that said all the more reason to go solar.

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Yes in Texas you have to choose between air conditioning your house or charging your car. Can’t have both.

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Beware - solar does NOT mean off grid. Solar is still tied into grid. If grid is down, solar is down.

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Literally have never had to choose between climate control, using a dryer or charging two to three cars simultaneously and our home is nearly 60 years old.

The worst we’ve seen thus far is voltage sag but no brownouts or anything like that.

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Low range anxiety state.

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Gas is expensive on the islands too (usually)

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I went to Maui in March and was shocked to find the gas was significantly cheaper than California. I would’ve thought the remoteness would drive up the price, but apparently not.

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It’s interesting that EVs seem so commonplace and ubiquitous in NJ yet there’s only 30k of them registered in the state. There’s definitely some crossover on the highways from neighboring states but overall it’s still not nearly as many as you might think.

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National average by registration is 1.0%. CA is 3.0%. HI is the only other state over 2%. NJ believe it or not is only 1.2%.

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There is a trend to add storage and a transfer switch to home solar installs out here, for the express purpose of having a few days of blackout protection. A friend of mine just added a second Tesla Powerwall a few weeks ago, but SunRun screwed up the permits, and they won’t get paid until the permits are sorted. They’ve been silent ever since. He will wait them out.

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Apparently their power plants run on gas :fuelpump:

That’s certainly a great solution. Plus the more household solar is out there, the more aggregate power production thus less potential for grid going down due to higher demand/peak surge.

Personally, I’ve rarely experienced power outages in my decade plus in SoCal. The rare time it happened was due to some sort of power company maintenance or repair and wasn’t down for long and wasn’t any worse than my time living in NJ.

Besides, I’ve noticed a ton of additional programs by the power company to manage peak surge, like overrides for A/C (voluntarily of course). Plus, the temperature is generally moderate here so we rarely run A/C.

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I’ve had 2 that lasted 20 minutes in that same timeframe. Winter storms and Hurricanes passing through DC and Ohio led to longer outages.

Ohm Connect has been great to reward me ($$$) for adjusting my thermostat in peaks, and it’s 100% voluntary. If I want to run my AC or dishwasher then I can.

The blackout predictions is based on a perfect storm of confluent events happening which could impact 1700-1800 megawatts of power statewide which equates to 1.3-1.8 million homes worth of lost power. Surrounding states are also forecasting impacts this summer, and they won’t be able to supply any extra power CA.

  1. Coal based plants retiring and not getting replaced
  2. Aging coal & gas-fired plants across the West risk being forced to reduce their output
  3. Wind energy lower than expected, outputting less energy to grid
  4. Severe drought impacting hydropower output
  5. Wild fires and extreme heat impacting grid reliability

My power goes out all the time (PG&E) in norcal, even though Enron is not in business anymore.

Edit: not because of overloaded grid, mostly because of weather like wind and rain.

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I have never come across this ever. Two cars charging same time, aircon blasting in the house. Where do you live in TX? Also never lost power in the 2021 freezing power outages. Although my palm trees all died.

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Hello neighbor!

We never lost power or gas either, oddly enough quite a few of our neighboring streets did.

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Its an article from the Washington Post, hopefully not paywalled for most.

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