power to the internet

Thu Dec 26 23:37:25 UTC 2019

On Thu Dec 26, 2019 at 11:20:01AM -0800, Michael Thomas wrote:
> I just looked up Telsa's battery packs and they seem to be between 
> 60-100kwh. Our daily use is about 30kwh in the fall, so it's only 2-3 
> days. Admittedly we can turn off the hot tub, water heater, etc to 
> stretch it out. And of course, that means that you can't drive it... The 
> one thing that would be for everybody's good is using them during peak 
> hours. If you work normal hours, then that only gets part of the peak 
> load, unfortunately.

Many with a tesla (or three) are likely to get some local PV/wind
generation to charge them (more so if the outages become a regular
event). Then the base load doesn't matter and they can still drive
some of them while the others charge. Some may just use their EV as
a battery that has other uses when the power isn't out and not care
they can't use it for both. There are plenty of projects working on
this distributed storage/generation model.

> But of course this has nothing to do with the network power problem. I 
> assume they won't be parking a Tesla next to a CMTS headend.

Proliferation of local generation and storage may have a lot of impact
on network expectations. Last mile that assumes when the cab loses
power then the consumers have too will have to update their assumptions.
The consumers running on local power are able to carry on as normal
and expect network to carry on too.

Architectures with lots of distributed small active plant may be
harder hit trying to add generation than those with passive plant
and few active nodes.

brandon