Mike Qaissaunee was kind enough to send me this article that presents an interesting scenario:

Imagine all the folks on the waiting list for the Chevy Volt or a plug-in Toyota Prius plugged in their cars at once. The result? Blackout, as the world’s largest machine (otherwise known as the electric grid) is overloaded.

A simple scenario and one that is not too farfetched.  When they build new stadiums, they test to make sure that the pipes won’t burst if every toilet is flushed at the same time.  Obviously it would be hard to test everyone plugging their car in at the same time what would happen.  Even if it was not every electric car…  Imagine a very hot summer where every air conditioner in the city is running, straining to cool the houses and businesses.  And people start coming home from work and start plugging their vehicles in for a recharge…   This is where the smart charger comes in.

What’s needed is a device that can sense when there’s sufficient capacity to juice up an electric car and when there’s not—a so-called “smart charger” (which would, of course, be a key component of a “smart” grid).

The smart grid, the smart charger, all keeping track of electrical use so we don’t have blackouts.  Technology can solve a lot of problems, but it can also create even more issues if we are not aware of the ramifications of what we create.  The smart charger will help prevent those problems so that people can remain ignorantly blissful of how close they were to a blackout.

Mark Viquesney