Will National Grid cope when drivers switch on?

FEARS were growing last night that the National Grid will struggle to cope with the surge in demand when drivers switch from fossil fuels to electricity in 2040.

Experts warn that when sales of new petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles are banned, we will need the equivalent to six extra nuclear power plants or 10,000 new wind turbines to keep Britain moving.

The Government made the announcement yesterday.

But last night the AA said the National Grid will be under immense pressure to ‘cope with a mass switch- on after the evening rush hour’.

We will also need 500,000 public charging sockets to ensure motorists do not grind to a halt.

There are currently just 105,000 electric cars here – less than 1 per cent of the total.

The National Grid estimates that to cater for the conversion of the British car fleet to electric, we could need an extra 18 gigawatts at peak times, which roughly equates to the output from six extra Hinckley Point C nuclear power stations.

Another estimate is that up to 10,000 new wind turbines would be needed.

However, the extra load on the power network could be cut through ‘smart charging’. This allows households to charge their vehicles automatically at off-peak times when electricity demand is slack.

An increase in the use of public transport and sharing of self-driving cars could also reduce power demand, officials say.

But Luke Bosdet, spokesman for the AA, said he was sceptical that drivers will abandon their personal cars to join the ‘sharing economy’.

He said: ‘ There are two things that show your status in society – first is your house, and second your car. I don’t think the British motoring public are about to relinquish their love affair with car ownership.’ Most motorists will charge their car at home over night, which will take about eight hours on a domestic charging point.

But to ensure people do not run out of power on their travels, there will need to be a huge expansion in the number of public charging sockets.

Currently there are about 13,000 public sockets. Chargemaster, which operates many of the power points, estimates we could need as many as 500,000.

In effect every space in a work car park, supermarket or hotel

‘Pressure at rush hour’ ‘You’ll be pretty miffed’

car park could have a socket, which will be sufficient for a quick ‘top-up’ of the battery, although a full recharge would take 3-4 hours.

Chargemaster spokesman Tom Callow said: ‘If the Government say all vehicles have to be electric, you’ll be pretty miffed if you can’t top up your vehicle when you do the shopping.’

He said there would be much less call for ‘rapid charging sockets’ – which allow an electric car to charge to 80 per cent capacity in 30 minutes – with around 30,000 being sufficient for the whole country, up from 750 at present.

At present just 2 per cent of drivers currently plan to get a purely electric vehicle, while a further 10 per cent expect to buy a hybrid.

Motorists say short range and difficulty charging are major barriers to purchasing electric.

But estimates by Bloomberg New Energy Finance show that by 2025, electric cars will be equivalent in price to petrol and diesel vehicles.

Professor Alastair Lewis, of the University of York, said: ‘Given the rate of improvement in battery and electric vehicle technology over the last ten years, by 2040 small combustion engines in private cars could well have disappeared without any Government intervention.’