Why EV Charging is the new TV Pickup
A changing pattern in energy demand.
There was a time when the UK's electricity grid had to prepare in advance for a specific national beverage. At the end of a popular soap episode, or to de-stress during half-time, millions of people would simultaneously pop the kettle on. Understandably in those few minutes, demand for electricity would surge dramatically.
This phenomenon became known as "TV pickup". It was (and sometimes still is) something grid operators actively planned for.
Today however, a new challenge is emerging on a much larger scale. And this time it's not kettles driving it, it's electric vehicles. (Literally!)
Boiling a kettle uses around 2.5-3kW, but only for a few minutes. By contrast, a home EV charger can use around 7kW, and for several hours. If millions of EV owners plug their cars in at roughly the same time, at 6pm for example when they return home from work, the result isn't just a short spike in demand like making a quick cuppa, it's a sustained surge that can last throughout the evening peak.
To combat this, energy suppliers have introduced a range of incentives to encourage EV owners to charge outside of peak hours, rewarding customers for charging overnight when the grid is under less pressure.
While this works well in the short term, as EV adoption continues to grow, this approach introduces a new challenge of its own.
From One Peak to Another
If enough people respond to similar incentives, a new pattern will begin to emerge. Instead of millions of cars charging at 6pm, they start charging at 10pm, midnight, or as soon as the cheaper tariffs begin.
Over time, this will create a secondary peak, one that is later but still highly concentrated. It may be less visible than the traditional evening peak, but as sales for EVs continues to rise, as will this new pressure on the system.
What this highlights is simple - shifting demand isn’t the same as solving it.
Encouraging people to charge overnight is a step in the right direction, but the grid isn’t static. Electricity prices fluctuate. Carbon intensity changes. Local networks experience different levels of strain at different times.
A More Flexible Way Forward
The real opportunity lies in using EV charging more intelligently.
Rather than following the same schedule every day, charging should respond dynamically:
- to lower-cost periods
- to times when renewable generation is high
- to when the grid has capacity to handle it
This moves us away from synchronised behaviour, and towards something more distributed and responsive.
Looking Ahead
The ‘TV Pickup’ was a predictable spike the grid learned to manage, but EV charging is different and introduces a new kind of demand. One that is flexible, but only if that flexibility is used well.
As adoption grows, the challenge isn’t going to be the 6pm peak, or even the 10pm one, it’s making sure we all don’t fall into doing the same thing at the same time.
Ultimately, the future of the energy system won’t just depend on how much electricity we use, but how intelligently we use it.