Inverters exacerbating Eskom problems.

[BillyG]

Inverter sales have sky rocketed as everyone scrambles to alleviate load shedding.
When a block is turned off, all those with inverters switch to battery stored power, but not that many inverters are recharged with solar energy.
Problem is, when that block is turned on again, normal consumption resumes, but thousands of batteries - more every day, start recharging at the same time that geysers and other heavy consumers climb back to normal temperatures/pressures etc.
Thus the energy consumption of a grid just restored must be higher than when it was turned off. So how long before the higher demand on switch on is too much for the grid?
For example, our company recently installed an inverter system. When power goes off, we switch seamlessly to batteries, however, when power returns our batteries recharge over about 3-4 hours so in those first say four hours back on the grid our consumption is some 25% higher than before we went off and this scenario is increasing with every inverter sold.

 

[TheChamp]

I don't think it's too much of a big deal, most big installs have solar so those pretty much takes care of themselves, smaller systems used by residents do not require too much current to recharge.

This is my inverter recharging

 

[Tinuva]

We flattening the curve for eskom with battery storage of our own

 

[Pax]

Eskom exacerbating Eskom's problems. It is symptom/consequence of load shedding. A problem created by Eskom self.

 

[RiaX]

not our problem. Failure to provide goods will result in getting same goods elsewhere

 

[TheChamp]

Trickle charge?
Mine was pulling 1.5kw from solar at 7am today. If it's set to pull from eskom, it pulls around 2.5kw.

Mine is a small setup and the batteries were not completely discharged, which is another point to consider @BillyG, not everyone goes from completely discharged to charging, most of the time loadshedding happens I am at work so there is nothing using the batteries.

It also depends on the chargers, most of those smaller systems have smaller chargers designed to charge over time instead of fast charging like in lithiums.

 

[Lupus]

Inverter sales have sky rocketed as everyone scrambles to alleviate load shedding.
When a block is turned off, all those with inverters switch to battery stored power, but not that many inverters are recharged with solar energy.
Problem is, when that block is turned on again, normal consumption resumes, but thousands of batteries - more every day, start recharging at the same time that geysers and other heavy consumers climb back to normal temperatures/pressures etc.
Thus the energy consumption of a grid just restored must be higher than when it was turned off. So how long before the higher demand on switch on is too much for the grid?
For example, our company recently installed an inverter system. When power goes off, we switch seamlessly to batteries, however, when power returns our batteries recharge over about 3-4 hours so in those first say four hours back on the grid our consumption is some 25% higher than before we went off and this scenario is increasing with every inverter sold.

Yes this is why people's bills are higher during loadshedding cause of the recharge

 

[PsyWulf]

Ima put down a dollar to say the stoves+geysers switching on are a bigger hit than the inverters that aren't solar backed.

Why? Most people work sparingly to save their batteries with light loadshed usage
They don't work sparingly to use less cooking and water heating when Eskom comes on again

 

[SauRoNZA]

Mine is set to only recharge by 10% or so because solar will do the work the next day.

But it does smash it at something like 7kW when it does recharge that so it takes less than half an hour.

 

[TheChamp]

Yes this is why people's bills are higher during loadshedding cause of the recharge

To be fair to the guy he was talking about instantaneous draw not necessarily the total energy used, so the bill doesn't need to be high for the scenario he is describing.

 

[RonSwanson]

When a block is turned off, all those with inverters switch to battery stored power, but not that many inverters are recharged with solar energy.

Source for that?

 

[RonSwanson]

People who keep the burglar alarms, electric fence, lights and security systems on are being responsible citizens, and can rest, get up and go to work the following morning, be productive at work and earn tax money to pay Eskom for the electricity used by the people of Soweto and other similar areas.

People who do this for home use aren't even a drop in the bucket. The ones that you should be concerned about in the next 5-7 years are the large scale primary industries, like this one: 23Km of cables, 5MW of storage, 6MW of solar panels

https://twitter.com/x/status/1576129959457787904

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

It doesn't make much difference, just shifts the load to a different time.

High instantaneous loads are not so much an issue for the grid, other areas would be turned off when your power comes back to help absorb that. The bigger problem is the effect it has on local substations, which often trips when the power returns because of these high spikes...

 

[AchmatK]

Yes this is why people's bills are higher during loadshedding cause of the recharge

And you are paying for the efficiency losses. There's a 10% loss that's forgotten about so if you used 1kWh from your battery during load shedding, it's going to take 1.1kWh from the grid to get the battery back to what it was before load shedding.

My battery stats but I use solar to charge them and only in emergencies do I use the grid to charge them.

It's clear that it takes 10% more to charge than what I can discharge from them.

 

[PsyWulf]

Mine is set to only recharge by 10% or so because solar will do the work the next day.

But it does smash it at something like 7kW when it does recharge that so it takes less than half an hour.

you can set is down to 20/40amp rather than 120

 

[Azure 12]

Physics, who knew?