Article by Eric Worrell
Can anyone on the green team do simple math?
Grid thwarts Ampol's plans for massive EV chargers
Ben Porter and Simon Evans
Updated August 19, 2024 – 7:09 pm, first published at 1:33 pmAmpol, one of the country's largest petrol retailers, has scrapped plans to triple the number of electric car chargers due to grid constraints, dealing a blow to the government's hopes of promoting widespread use of clean cars by motorists by 2030.
Chief executive Matt Halliday said it would be impossible to increase the number of charging stations from 92 to 300 by the end of the year because of difficulties connecting chargers to the grid, which is already struggling to cope with the influx of renewable energy.
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“[As] Although we spend a lot of time talking about generation, stationary and transmission infrastructure, the last mile distribution grid is not really built for large-scale electrification, although the players must work hard to achieve this,” Mr Khalidi added. “There are a lot of limitations to overcome.”
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The lack of electric vehicle chargers will particularly affect long-distance drivers. Chargers range in power from 75 kilowatts for small charging stations to 300 kilowatts for fast chargers, Ross De Rango said. Operators usually install three to five chargers at a site, which brings previously unknown problems to local low-voltage networks. A lot of new loads that don't have to be taken on.
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Learn more: https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/ampol-dials-back-ev-charging-target-slashes-dividend-20240812-p5k1q4
Last December I drove a four-wheel drive across the Australian outback, from the east coast of subtropical Queensland to Adelaide on Australia's southern coast. Most towns in Australia's outback are very friendly, but there are some unpleasant exceptions.
In a particularly remote town in western New South Wales, I met an electric vehicle charger repairman who told me he was making a fortune repairing electric stations every few days, and the local gang Constantly destroying charging stations. He was only a few feet away from the truck, but he kept the back of the truck locked the entire time he was working, except to get tools. Within 5 minutes of us stopping to rest, two teenage gangs walked past my car. The bar across the street was boarded up and its windows had apparently been smashed multiple times until the owner apparently got tired of replacing them. I didn't know if the bar was open and had no interest in taking a closer look.
I got out of town as fast as I could, I didn't want to get mugged or worse. The idea of sitting there charging an electric car for hours is unthinkable.
However, if you're driving an electric car on this fastest, most direct route between Brisbane and Adelaide, you're going to have to stop at this train wreck of a town. My long-range diesel 4WD A/C is battling the scorching sun and desert heat, burning a lot of fuel to keep the vehicle's interior habitable, so forget about the EV range numbers in the manual, you're going to have to do that every few hundred miles Charging electric vehicles. I've never seen any electric cars on that stretch of road, but imagine if there were more electric cars on that stretch of road and you'd have to line up in a place like that to charge?
I'm glad EV enthusiasts' plans are being shaken. There is much more at stake than the embarrassment of being exposed as countless incompetents by corporate executives and politicians.
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