Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Time for Electric Power?

I'm not sure what you mean by 'running hot'? The purpose of the National Grid is to ensure that the 400kV Transmission Network and the 14 Distribution Networks are constantly in balance, riding a fine line between demand and supply to within a few Hz (Too much demand and the frequency drops, too much supply and it rises), so the network can always said to be 'running hot' in the sense that there's no benefit in having excess capacity.

What's important of course is the grid's ability to respond to unforeseen spikes, and there are several strategies in place which act to adjust that.

Firstly of course there are the infrastructure and generation improvements, which are constantly ongoing.

Then we have demand response activities, whereby industries that can quickly reduce or increase their consumption participate with the Grid to help balance supply and demand.

Next there are the small-scale generators. Typically these are commercial or industrial enterprises with generators and/or batteries that can be quickly spun up when required.

And of course there are the Virtual Power plant aggregators allowing small generators to participate in the wholesale market to combine their offerings into traceable block.

Before retirement I worked in the electricity supply industry for over 12 years and I can assure you and everyone else that the idea that we are going to somehow run out of electricity if we switch to EVs is a patent nonsense. Bot the National Grid Company, the generators, the supply companies, and the DNOs are investing billions in ensuring our future ability to meet demand.

One very interesting source of information on this is the National Grid's Strategy site

https://www.nationalgrideso.com/future-energy/future-energy-scenarios

I'm not trying to pretend that everything is rosy and we won't hit any problems at all, but the idea that we're facing collapse due to EVs is more than a bit fanciful.