PG&E called; Cupertino is their highest density EV market

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

DeaneG

Well-known member
Joined
May 4, 2010
Messages
1,110
Location
Cupertino, CA
I just got a call from PG&E asking what type of EV I have, how long I've had it, and whether I charge at Level 1 or 2. The rep said that the purpose of the call was to help assess the load on the currently installed lines and transformers.

He mentioned that the Cupertino area has the highest density of EVs out of all of their markets, with applications (besides many Leafs) for a couple of ActiveE BMWs and a Fisker Karma.

EDIT: oops, should have posted in the PG&E thread.
 
DeaneG said:
He mentioned that the Cupertino area has the highest density of EVs out of all of their markets, with applications (besides many Leafs) for a couple of ActiveE BMWs and a Fisker Karma.

I need to get out of the house more often and away from the computer. I live in Cupertino and very seldom see a LEAF or other type of EV. Of course I don't commute to an office so I try to stay off the roads during commuter time.

DeaneG, do you agree with PGE's statement above?
 
I assume when PGE is talking about density, they are not referring to area, but is based on some parameter related to population density. For example, based on number of households (about 20,100), out of a total population of about 58,300 (2010 census) for Cupertino.
 
Palo Alto is likely the highest density in the Bay Area, I see a Leaf or Volt all the time, and count at least 4 EVs (1 tesla, 2 leafs, 1 volt) within a 2 block radius.

Good thing we get to pay Palo Alto Utility instead of PG&E ($0.095, $0.13, and $0.17/kwh for the three tiers), which is much cheaper =)
 
I live in Cupertino and we have two EVs, they called today and asked for me but were wise enough to see if my wife could answer their questions.

arnold
 
I bet Nissan has a dot map display that shows the data reporting world LEAF density in real time just like the air traffic.

http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/video_world_air_traffic_pattern.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just a little hop from Cupertino to Sunnyvale there are 3 LEAFS on the same block that park outside the garage. I have seen a couple more going into garages another block over so there are many EV's around here. We had a map at one time to show our orders but haven't looked at it recently. Now about the PG&E power demand -- the CAISO website shows the current power demand for California and it currently ranges from 20 to 30 GWatts and one division on the chart is 1GWatt which would require 260,000 LEAFs on at the same time to move it one division. Now if we could get 26,000 in California and could sync them up then a wee wiggle of 1/10 division might just be visible.
 
spotting EVs in the Bay area might only be where EV owners work. commuting to Palo Alto is common considering its a small area, half the town most people would not be caught dead living there (for fear of death!) etc. now, i have not been in that area for 25 years so hopefully it has gotten better, but East Palo Alto was not a good idea.

considering how many EVs there are, density means nothing this early in the game. that is like an area having 1 verses another area having zero. the density ratings mean nothing
 
linkim said:
...DeaneG, do you agree with PGE's statement above?
Can't speak for all of Cupertino, but there are two Leafs on my block and another couple I see often, so I don't doubt it. We certainly fit the demographic.
 
saintyohann said:
Drive through the Apple campus, that's where you'll find them...

No kidding. Apple has about two dozen Chargepoint stations scattered around their various Cupertino buildings, and they are often occupied.
 
Does the area have smart meters yet? I would think PG&E would have all the demand numbers by transformer if they did.
Phone call is kinda lame these days. JMO.
 
smkettner said:
Does the area have smart meters yet? I would think PG&E would have all the demand numbers by transformer if they did.
Phone call is kinda lame these days. JMO.
The phone call wasn't to measure electricity usage. It was to verify electric vehicle ownership, and ask about L1 vs L2 charging.
My smartmeter was swapped out when I got PV solar. They don't have a backoffice software solution for net smartmetering yet.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
...spotting EVs in the Bay area might only be where EV owners work. commuting to Palo Alto is common considering its a small area, half the town...
East Palo Alto and Palo Alto are two very different cities. In fact they are in different counties. East Palo Alto has changed a lot in the past 25 years, including much redevelopment. Still, I don't think most locals think of them as two halves...
 
DeaneG said:
smkettner said:
Does the area have smart meters yet? I would think PG&E would have all the demand numbers by transformer if they did.
Phone call is kinda lame these days. JMO.
The phone call wasn't to measure electricity usage. It was to verify electric vehicle ownership, and ask about L1 vs L2 charging.
My smartmeter was swapped out when I got PV solar. They don't have a backoffice software solution for net smartmetering yet.
Are you not on a TOU plan? Otherwise usage is usage and once they have TOU data they know the peak load on any particular equipment.
 
smkettner said:
DeaneG said:
smkettner said:
Does the area have smart meters yet? I would think PG&E would have all the demand numbers by transformer if they did.
Phone call is kinda lame these days. JMO.
The phone call wasn't to measure electricity usage. It was to verify electric vehicle ownership, and ask about L1 vs L2 charging.
My smartmeter was swapped out when I got PV solar. They don't have a backoffice software solution for net smartmetering yet.
Are you not on a TOU plan? Otherwise usage is usage and once they have TOU data they know the peak load on any particular equipment.

The PG&E Smartmeter is not able to measure local generated power or sense the direction of the power flow. I don't have local generation so my Smartmeter is able to report each hour of power demand after a couple of days have passed. Those with PV generation have to use a net meter that is able to sense the direction of power flow but it doesn't phone home or report the data to a 'backoffice solution'. So a meter reader 'reads' the meter with a logging tool at some periodic time interval and the meter has measured the power generation and power used for each of the TOU 'accumulators' and you get to "true up" with PG&E. This seems very primitive to me since the dumb meter was capable of running backwards - it just didn't phone home nor knew the time of day. I guess the Smartmeter does not account for the sign of the voltage and current when it multiplies to determine the power - not a very good application of engineering in my opinion.
 
The SmartMeters (can transmit their info in to SDG&E) being installed here (not on TOD for me), show Total IN and Total OUT, and the NET.

So, this PU (SDG&E) is "feeling" like they should be collecting MORE money when they can NOW see 25 kWh used (IN, for one day), and 25 kWh sent OUT (NET = zero).
 
I had a smartmeter with PV briefly before they yanked it to install a TOU meter. The smartmeter was perfectly capable of recording negative energy consumption for each hourly interval. But the backoffice software interpreted negative consumption over each hour period as "zero".
 
DeaneG said:
I had a smartmeter with PV briefly before they yanked it to install a TOU meter. The smartmeter was perfectly capable of recording negative energy consumption for each hourly interval. But the backoffice software interpreted negative consumption over each hour period as "zero".

Thanks for that and I stand corrected and will update my neighbor as well. PG&E provides data access and when I first converted to E9A the data stream vanished for a few months and recently became available again so things are getting better on the PG&E data side.
 
I have some further information on DeaneG's original post on this thread. I also live in Cupertino and talked to the PGE rep about my EV today. Regarding the issue of highest density EV market. He said that the DeAnza Division (Cupertino/part of SJ/Los Altos/Los Altos Hills) had the highest number of EVs of all the PGE divisions. Also, the DeAnza Division is one of the smallest. So, I guess we have the largest number of EV/area in the PGE territory.
 
Back
Top