Wednesday, July 1, 2015: Part VI -- Weather, Tesla Charging Stations

This is a huge day. The "Global_Warming_2014_2015" tag has come to an end. As of July 1, 2015, the tag will be "Global_Warming_2015_2016."

The Telegraph is reporting unexpected high temperatures in Europe are causing power outages:

In the west of France, in Brittany and the Pays de la Loire, there was a massive power cut which saw between 600,000 and a million homes left without electricity between Tuesday night and the early hours of Wednesday morning after high temperatures affected power equipment. State authorities said it was “exceptional” for the weather to have such repercussions on power supply to homes. The heatwave sparked a further power cut in the western town of Vannes early on Wednesday morning, leaving up to 120,000 homes without electricity at 7am.

Meanwhile, here in southern California, on the radio, there was an "ISO" alert -- southern Californians need to turn off the lights, shut off the a/c when not home; delay use of appliances where possible -- the grid may be unable to hold. I see it's called a "flex alert":

With a heat wave gripping parts of Southern California, the manager of the state’s energy grid has issued a “flex alert,” urging residents to conserve electricity between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. to reduce strain on the system. 

The flex alert went into effect Tuesday and was to remain in effect through Wednesday, according to the California Independent System Operator.

According to Cal-ISO, a flex alert is issued when the state’s power grid is under stress due to elevated demand or transmission system outages.

Cal-ISO predicted peak energy demand for the day to hit 44,700 megawatts around 6 p.m.

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Autos

Auto sales were posted earlier, but Tesla is not feeling the love. The Wall Street Journal is reporting: wealthy European Tesla owners are a bit miffed when it comes to waiting to get their high-priced batteries-on-wheels (BOWs) charged.

AMSTERDAM—Matthijs van Seventer won’t take his Model S electric sedan to the Tesla charging station in the southeast part of the city if he is in a hurry. The chargers are typically loaded with taxicabs serving Schiphol airport.

“It’s barely viable,” he said standing near a row of superchargers, which for Tesla owners are the equivalent of gas pumps to quickly recharge their battery-powered vehicles. “When I arrived there was just one spot left.”

Mr. van Seventer’s frustration reflects a rare rift in what has typically been a cozy relationship between Tesla Motors Inc. and its thousands of owners around the world.

Free charging at company-run stations is one of a handful of unique incentives aimed at Tesla owners.

BOW chargers:

• can't find them (hidden behind taxi stands)
• can't use them when queues are three, or four, or five cars deep
• 30-minute charging? drivers go inside for a 45-minute lunch break, leaving car at charger even after fully charged
• owned by rich folks who are not used to waiting
• owned by rich folks who don't like hanging out at taxi stands

By the way, I traveled through Schiphol airport on numerous occasions when stationed overseas, particularly when I was sent on temporary duty to England. It was my favorite airport to transit, and I tried hard to get the USAF travel office to route me via Amsterdam and NOT Heathrow. The USAF travel office often acted as if they had not heard of Schiphol. Wow, the good ol' days.

Although I wasn't looking for one, after four days driving cross-country, racking up 1,600 miles on a major thoroughfare, most of it on I-40, from Dallas to Los Angeles, I did not see one sign pointing out a Tesla charging station. And had there been one in Needles, CA, and if needed, that would have been waiting 30 minutes in 115-degree temperature in a remote part of the desert waiting for the Tesla to be charged.

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Speaking of the Good Ol' Days

When I was earning my first real salary and newly married and no children and living in southern California, I enjoyed looking for $50-bottles of wine. It did not take me long to learn that it was easy to find good wine. The hard thing was to find "great wine" at "inexpensive" prices. Somewhere along the line I ran into a wine connoisseur who raved about "two-buck-Chuck." And although I don't drink much wine any more, when I remember, I buy "two-buck-Chuck."

It looks like it may be as good as, or even better, than I realized, on so many levels. See story at Business Insider. These are the same guys that feel stock splits are silly. [I am in the camp, that all things being equal, I like stock splits.]