Diamond Bus North West

[Quackdave]

RE: Diamond Bus North West

(13/02/2020 00:51)EDB325 Wrote:  I've just been reading on Steven Knight Media that Stagecoach at Cambridge will only be having the two electric deckers they recently took into stock because the National Grid are unable to cater for any more !

I remember Harrogate Bus having problems with their 8 Volvo saloons because charging them at the Bus Station severely compromised the electricity supply to Town Centre businesses. They ended up generating their own supply - with a diesel generator. Green my derriere !

We're dashing headlong into this, and it'll end in tears. I completed an AA survey on electric cars yesterday. One of the questions was "what would persuade you to buy an electric car ?". My response was that I would rather have my toenails pulled out with pliers and no anaesthetic than even consider it.

Of course we'd all love cleaner air, but rushing into it like we are doing is doomed to failure.

Describing the current glacial uptake rate for EVs as "rushing" is among the more fanciful statements that I've read recently!

When there are short-term, localized issues such as you describe, the problem is not with the National Grid, which handles power in the order of gigawatts. Nor is it even with a significant portion of the local distribution network. The most rapid chargers available are rated at around 300 kW, equivalent to around 160 kettles. If the electricity supply to a city of 125,000 inhabitants couldn't cope with more than 320 kettles being boiled at once, there'd be blackouts every time an ad break came on TV. In other words, it's quite a localized infrastructure deficiency, which can (and presumably will) be rectified in all of these cases. No bus company is going to be thinking of diesel generators as a long-term solution.

Certainly, in the medium term, the whole grid needs upgrading; but there's nothing fundamentally insurmountable about that. By comparison, consider that in the mid-19th century, railway route mileage equivalent to two-thirds of the current network was built in less than a decade. Where there's a will, there's a way.

Yes, we'd all love cleaner air - not least the hundreds of millions who suffer, and the hundreds of thousands who die of respiratory diseases each year - and we aren't going to get it by sitting around thinking "waily-wah, this feels a bit too difficult". For goodness' sake, even the Government acknowledges that this transition is urgent — and Conservative governments aren't traditionally renowned for their willingness to prioritize environmental and social considerations ahead of individual and corporate interests and intransigence.

I'll go and fetch the pliers...