You couldn’t make this rubbish up. The UK government, yes the one closing power stations, building windmills, & trying to force everyone into electric cars, has just passed a new law.

Under regulations that will come into force in May, chargers in the home and workplace will be automatically set not to function from 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm.

The government is also taking powers to impose a “randomised delay” of up to 30 minutes at other times to avoid pressure on the grid if there is a scramble among motorists to recharge their batteries at the same time.

There are only 300,000 battery electric vehicles (EVs) on the UK’s roads, how long will the no charge period have to be if this number doubles, or as the government desires, increases by 100 fold. I wonder what effect the imminent closure of the remaining nuclear power stations will have on no charging times.

I wonder if it is possible to find a more disorganised bunch anywhere, than western governments & their damn fool global warming policies.

Dear Hasbeen,

Geez mate you do fall for this crap all the time don't you.

Here is the text your source forgot to include;

"The Government will mandate that smart chargepoints must prompt users to input a charging schedule during first use. In addition, smart chargepoints must be pre-set to offer users a charging schedule that by default prevents EVs from charging at peak times. During first use, the user must be given the opportunity to edit or remove this setting. The user must also be able to remove or edit this default setting at a later date. Peak times will be defined in legislation as 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm on weekdays."

So the user can over ride this at any time. So why the carry on?

http://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1015285/electric-vehicle-smart-charging-government-response.pdf

During the early days of "the horseless carriage", people would have to carry enough fuel with them, buy it from hardware stores or send it ahead to be picked up Post Offices if on a longer trip.

Car manufacturers are preparing to dump their petrol models regardless and inevitably steps will be made to accommodate EV consumer requirements, as has always been the case.

Interesting Hasbeen.

Things must be getting serious in Europe for
the UK to take these steps. Perhaps we shall learn
something from it. Lets wait and see.

Dear Foxy,

Things aren't bad at all. These is just sensible moves to deal with future load sharing.

"The time of day at which Electric Vehicle (EV) charging occurs could have significant implications for the electricity system. We expect that many consumers will charge their EVs at home in the future. Without smart charging, EV charging is likely to happen during existing electricity system peak times (such as between 5pm and 7pm) when many people arrive home from work. This would require significant levels of additional investment both in the networks that transport the electricity, with the costs borne ultimately by consumers, and in electricity generation capacity to meet increased demand."

This is nothing new to operators as the TV-pickup syndrome is already dealt with through some close monitoring.

"The National Grid Energy Balancing Team is responsible for ensuring an adequate supply of electricity and try to ensure a frequency of between 49.5 and 50.5 Hz is maintained. To prepare for pickups the team runs a computer program that compares the current day with corresponding periods over the past five years to predict the size of demand, and studies TV schedules to anticipate demand from popular shows. Grid employees must also be familiar with popular soap-opera storylines as one might cause a sudden rise in demand. Owing to this, they are aware of what shows attract the largest audiences and of customers' television choices; one expressed his disapproval in 2013, "The TV pickup from Deal or No Deal is gobsmackingly high. How sad is that?""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_pickup

The primary instrument to deal with this isn't fossil fueled nor nuclear but rather pumped hydro which can be brought online in 12 seconds.

This initiative will see EV vehicle owners coming home and plugging in their cars for the night. without them having to do a thing the charging will then commence outside the peak times of energy use.

Eminently sensible policy.

So there really is little to get fired up about here and it is only bad faith actors who are feeding chooks like Hasbeen that things like this gain any traction.