In the station town of Gislinge, electric cars are currently being charged with power from a mobile diesel generator. There have been power outages in the town since Christmas.
Not all places in Denmark have the electricity grid geared to handle electric cars. In the station town of Gislinge on Zealand, a truck with a diesel generator has to supply the power.
The city has been plagued by several power outages since Christmas, and the easiest solution is a huge diesel generator from the grid company Cerius.
This is reported by Jyllands-Posten , among others.
According to the company's website, Cerius covers Northwest, Central and South Zealand, Lolland-Falster and the islands. But there is not enough power for the electric cars.
As an emergency solution, the diesel generator, which uses 400 liters of diesel per day, was installed on a residential street with 62 houses in Gislinge. The houses were all built in 2008, but even then, no account was taken of higher electricity consumption.
Diesel generator uses 400 liters of diesel per day
According to elforbrug.nu, it will take Cerius a month to get the supply back up and running as normal.
The reason it is taking so long is, among other things, that a transformer station needs to be replaced. A station that has not been serviced since 1979.
In addition, a larger supply line must be dug into the area, and a road must be divided into two supply areas in order to provide enough electricity.
The fact that there is not necessarily enough electricity around the clock is not just a challenge here in Denmark. In Norway, a shipping company has had to replace an electric ferry with a similar one that runs on diesel.
The ferry – that is, the electric one – cannot handle the load from additional sailings in the expanding route plan.
The problems arose when the ferry started sailing more than originally planned. The increased operating time put a strain on the battery pack, and it swallowed up the capacity well and truly.
According to Teknisk Ukeblad, capacity had dropped to 84 percent when the electric ferry was taken out of service.
The decline meant that the ferry had to be charged much more often than planned, and that it ultimately became too impractical to continue with the electric unloading.
According to the Swedish media, the technology director at Fjord1 explains that the battery system is designed for a specific load and a fixed cycle of charging and discharging.
So when the ferry suddenly had to sail more than originally planned, the batteries gave up. Therefore, a more permanent solution must now be found. Whether it will be the electric ferry crossing again.
However, several experts have already warned that battery packs, even in something as large as passenger ferries, have their limitations. Something that is now hitting the Norwegians in the neck.
Lars Ole Valoen, technology director at Corvus Energy, which has supplied the batteries for the electric “Medstraum”, emphasizes that it is important to respect what the battery pack is built for.
“When you push batteries beyond their original specifications, you risk significantly reducing their lifespan,” he says.
