[SystemSafety] Hazard and Qualitative-Risk Analysis of Mode 3 Charging of Electric Road Vehicles

[Peter Bernard Ladkin]

On 10/21/13 5:39 PM, Rolf Spiker wrote:
> But…..
> 
> Charging batteries is an old and still existing event.......
> Now we have electric cars with batteries........
> 
> We have already electric driven forklift trucks and charging equipment for a long time......
> What is the difference with that car battery and charging equipment that we have to make these
> studies now?

There are many differences. First, as Andrew points out, the capacities of the batteries are larger.
Second, these large capacity batteries are not being charged overnight in some industrial building
which is unoccupied overnight and probably well away from dwellings, but in people's houses where
they sleep. Third, I have some very thought-provoking pictures from Roger Kemp of burn-out electric
vehicles from Britain, I take it from the '50's and 60's when milk rounds and baker's rounds were
often made with electric vehicles. Fourth, a fork-lift truck charging overnight recently caused a
fire in a mentally-challenged people's home in Southern Germany. Half a million euros damage and
luckily no one was injured. Such things are going to happen a lot more when these vehicles are
pervasive. How much more? We don't know.

> Is there anything news under the sun?

Yes. For example, a million electric cars on Germany's roads. That's what the Chancellor has said
will be in 2020. That's a million electric cars recharging overnight, largely on
residential-building circuits. Never been seen before.

Just wait 'til the car manufacturers' lobby insists that you can power your house for two days from
your car, when there is a power failure. Mitsubishi has said it, and shown it, already. But the
electric grid is neither designed nor set up for external power sources, especially from
uncontrolled medium-capacity storage devices.

PBL

Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Faculty of Technology, University of Bielefeld, 33594 Bielefeld, Germany
Tel+msg +49 (0)521 880 7319  www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de